PAM THOMPSON

Pam ThomPsonExceptionally Fine CompanyPage 36

Denny haney on CarD maniPulaTion Page 48

BoB Farmer'ssvenvooDoo Page 52

MARCH 2013

http://www.larocks.com

MARCH 2013 - M-U-M Magazine 3

http://www.axtell.com

http://www.btydirect.com

MAGIC - UNITY - MIGHT Editor

Michael Close

Editor EmeritusDavid Goodsell

Associate Editor W.S. Duncan

Proofreader & Copy EditorLindsay Smith

Art DirectorLisa Close

PublisherSociety of American Magicians,

6838 N. Alpine Dr. Parker, CO 80134 Copyright © 2012

Subscription is through membership in the Society and annual dues of $65, which

includes 12 issues of M-U-M. All inquiries concerning membership, change of address, and missing or replacement issues

should be addressed to:Manon Rodriguez, National Administrator

P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80134 [email protected]

Skype: manonadminPhone: 303-362-0575

Fax: 303-362-0424

Send assembly reports to:[email protected]

For advertising information, reservations, and placement contact:

Mona S. Morrison, M-U-M Advertising Manager

645 Darien Court, Hoffman Estates, IL 60169Email: [email protected]

Telephone/fax: (847) 519-9201

Editorial contributions and correspondence concerning all content and advertising

should be addressed to the editor:Michael Close - Email: [email protected]

Phone: 317-456-7234

Submissions for the magazine will only be accepted by email or fax.

VISIT THE S.A.M. WEB SITE

www.magicsam.comTo access “Members Only” pages:

Enter your Name and Membership number exactly as it appears on your membership card.

4 M-U-M Magazine - MARCH 2013

http://www.nnmagic.com

MARCH 2013

M-U-M (ISSN 00475300 USPS 323580) is published monthly for $40 per year by The Society of American Magicians, 6838 N. Alpine Dr., Parker, CO 80134 . Periodical postage paid at Parker, CO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to M-U-M, c/o Manon Rodriguez, P.O. Box 505, Parker, CO 80134.

Volume 102 • Number 10

COLUMNISTS

THIS MONTH’S FEATURES

S.A.M. NEWS 6 From the Editor’s Desk 8 From the President’s Desk10 Newsworthy11 M-U-M Assembly News23 Broken Wands24 Good Cheer List 69 Our Advertisers

25 Salon de Magie • by Ken Klosterman26 The New Browser's Den of Magic28 Ebook Nook: Classic Sampler by Michael Skinner32 The High Road • by Mick Ayres34 Nielsen Gallery • by Tom Ewing36 COVER STORY • by Michael Close58 Informed Opinion • New Product Reviews66 Tech Tricks • by Bruce Kalver68 Basil the Baffling • by Alan Wassilak

42 Stage 101 • by Levent46 Mental Breakdown • by Christian Painter48 On the Shoulders of Giants • by Scott Alexander52 El Roberto Enigmatico • by R.D. Michaels56 Building a Show • by Larry Hass68 The Dean’s Diary • by George Schindler69 Inside Straight • by Norman Beck70 Confessions of a Paid Amateur • by Rod Danilewicz

MagazineM-U-M

Cover Photo by Richard Faverty


coverstory

page 36

26

34

48

48

Editor’s Desk

I keep a list of possible cover stories for M-U-M. Since 2009, Pam Thompson’s name has been on that list. Fortunately, cosmic forces finally aligned properly, and this month I was able to cross Pam’s name off that list. If you characterize Pam only as her onstage persona, you’d be way off base. Pam had a career as a model and an actress before she donned the crazy wig and Gucci of Poland terry-cloth robe. In fact, even though the Thompsons have been good friends of mine for more than thirty years, there were things about Pam that I didn’t discover until we chatted for the cover story interview. Be prepared to discover that Pam Thompson is much more than just “& Co.”

For over twenty years, The Society of American Magicians Magic Endowment Fund has awarded full tuition scholarships to promising young magicians between the ages of ten and eighteen to attend facilities focused on the magical performing arts. Schol-arships are available for either Tannen’s Magic Camp in Pennsyl-vania (July 13 – July 20) or the Sorcerer’s Safari Magic Camp in Toronto, Canada (August 27 – September 1). Both camps are wonderful places for youngsters to learn new skills, improve their performance abilities, and make new friends with similar interests. The campers study under some of the leading profes-sionals, receive helpful critiques of their performance ability, and attend classes that improve their skills. Candidates must be able to demonstrate talent and dedication to the magical performing arts discipline.

The Society of American Magicians Magic Endowment Fund is also awarding a full tuition scholarship to a promising and aspiring magician to attend the Jeff McBride Extended Master Class at the McBride Magic & Mystery School in Las Vegas. The winner can choose which Extended Master Class to attend, either July 7-13, 2013, or August 16-22, 2013. The scholarship covers the full tuition of the Master Class, but the winner will be responsible for his or her transportation to Las Vegas, lodging, and meals. Applicants must be at least thirteen years of age. All candidates must demonstrate existing talent and dedication to achieve improved magical performances and skills.

Applications for either scholarship may be obtained by writing

to the S.A.M. Magic Endowment Fund, 15 Warren Street, Suite 39, Hackensack, New Jersey 07601, or by email, stating your mailing address, to [email protected]. A copy of the application and instructions may also be downloaded from the S.A.M. website (www.magicsam.com). The deadline for receipt of applications is June 1, 2013.

Former M-U-M columnist Arian Black dropped me a note about a new TV magic show called Magic Outlaws, which features Chris Korn, Ben Seidman, and David Minkin as three buddies who drive around the U.S. per-forming magic in every city they visit. Arian was the casting director for the series, which premiers on March 10 on the Travel Channel. You can find the trailer for the show on YouTube.

Congratulations to Irwin Royes, who is celebrating his fiftieth year in magic. Mr. Royes was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a condition that causes very fragile bones. Although the prognosis was not good, Mr. Royes beat the odds. At four-feet three-inch-es tall, he bills himself as The World’s Smallest Magician. He started doing parties in clown make-up at age fifteen, and even though he has suffered over one hundred bone breaks, he is still going strong. He has been featured on the covers of both M-U-Mand The Linking Ring. He will celebrate his sixty-sixth birthday in July.

In the Assembly Reports this month I found mention of a compeer performing Bob Farmer’s The Casino Inspector from the January M-U-M. The assembly scribe wrote, “The group all left vowing to re-examine our magazines more carefully in the future to catch the treasures they hold.” Allow me to give you another heads-up: Bob Farmer’s Svenvoodoo in this issue is a killer trick. You’ll have to purchase a few things to make up this deck, but the work involved is not complicated. If you learn this, you’ll have a trick that will fool anybody – layman or magician.


Michael Close

Magic Outlaws on the Travel Channel

Need to Write an Assembly Report? We Made Your Job a Little Easier

Go to www.mum-magazine.com and click on “Easy Report Submission.” You’ll be taken to a page with a form that makes submitting your assembly report a breeze. Simply fill in the required fields and paste in your report from your word processor. Upload a photo and a caption if are submitting one. Then hit “Submit Form.” You’re done, and your report comes to us in format that makes our job a lot easier, too.

http://www.tomburgoon.com

mailto:[email protected]

Chris Bontjes

President’s DeskPresident’s Desk

On the ROadThe ability to travel, to meet with compeers, and to represent

the S.A.M. at special events is, without a doubt, the most enjoyable part of serving as your national president. The oppor-tunity to meet magicians and see magic from around the world is one of the most valuable benefits of S.A.M. membership. With each visit, I am reminded of the dedication of all our compeers to the art of magic and to the S.A.M. It is, however, the fellowship shared among magicians that makes the visits special.

The secrets of magic tricks may be learned through books, videos, and websites, but the level of friendship and fellowship that is evident at assembly meetings comes only through member-ship in and dedication to an organization such as an assembly of The Society of American Magicians. This is what “Get Involved, and Pass It On!” is all about – friends getting together to share with their peers the art that they love and to welcome new friends and to help guide them along the path to magical excellence.

There are differences, too. Fellowship, love of magic, and dedication to the S.A.M. are always evident, but each assembly finds its own, slightly different way to accomplish this goal. I have seen various levels of formality in dealing with meetings, and different formats and methods of organizing meetings, events, and more.

In magic, there are often several possible methods available to create a single effect. Each magician can choose the method that best fits his or her needs. S.A.M. assemblies seem to work the same way. While the effect (fellowship and growth in the art of magic) remains the same, each assembly seems to find and use the method that works best for them. Any assembly in search of new ideas and methods for their growth need look no further than the Assembly Reports right here in M-U-M. They contain a wealth of ideas ripe for the picking.

Why this reflection? During the month of January, I had the opportunity to visit three different assemblies to attend their banquets, install their officers, and watch and perform magic. Each was different in detail (venue, meal, type of performance, etc.), but equal in effect (fellowship and sharing through magic). I want to thank Assembly 7 (Omaha, NE), Assembly 51 (Peoria, IL), and Assembly 17 (Springfield, MA) for inviting me to share in their festivities.

RecOgnizing cOmpeeRs While on the road in

January, I had the opportunity to recognize with Presidential Citations the extraordinary contributions of two compeers to their fellow magicians and to the S.A.M. Compeer Dennis Rourke of Assembly 7 was honored at the Omaha Wizard’s Banquet. Two short weeks later, Compeer Leonard Nadeau of Assembly 17 was honored at their After the Holiday Get Together. Both have a long history of sharing their magical knowledge and of donating countless hours to the betterment of their

assembly and The Society of American Magicians.Do you know someone else who deserves to be recognized

and honored for their contributions to your assembly or to the S.A.M.? Send a picture and a short description to Spotlight Chair Barbara Dallas at [email protected]. They could be featured in a Spotlight in M-U-M magazine!

WashingtOn, d.c.Last month, I encouraged you to take advantage of early regis-

tration for our combined I.B.M./S.A.M. convention in St. Louis, Missouri, in 2014. (If you missed it, you will now have to wait until July for another opportunity to register.) While it is exciting to think about all that our next combined convention will bring, it is important to remember that we are coming up fast on our 2013 convention in Washington, D.C., July 2-6!

The schedule so far (we are not done with it), includes nine lectures, six shows, two contests, and three sessions of “Late Night Magic with the Underground” led by Dan Hauss. Of course, the convention will also include other meetings and sessions, the banquet, and a great selection of new magic for your consider-ation in the dealer’s room.

It will be an incredible five days of magic performance, learning, sharing, and fellowship. It is an opportunity to connect with old friends, to make new friends, and to rub elbows with some of the top talent in the business today. You will also have the opportunity to help those in need – our Buskers Show will be collecting money to be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project through Michael Finney’s foundation. I encourage you to sign up now and join us for a celebration of magic over our nation’s birthday, in our nation’s capital.

echOes Of the pastIn the “Prez Sez” column from the October 1971 issue of

M-U-M, President J. Gary Bontjes wrote: “A number of magicians attending the St. Louis S.A.M. convention expressed their interest in the Society, and asked how they could help. Everyone can help the Society to grow and prosper: 1) Write Congress about a National Magic Week Resolution. 2) Sign up a new member. 3) Write up a trick for M-U-M. 4) Take an active interest in the


Assembly 17 Installation Assembly 51 Installation

Awarding Dennis Rourke a Presidential Citation

S.A.M. National Officers

Dean: George Schindler, 1735 East 26th St., Brooklyn, NY 11229, (718) 336-0605, Fax (718) 627-1397, [email protected]: J. Christopher Bontjes, 2313 Atwood Ct., Danville, IL 61834 (217) 442-6244 [email protected] Elect: Dal Sanders, 3316 Northaven Rd, Dallas, TX 75229 (214) 902-9200, [email protected] First Vice President: Kenrick “ICE” McDonald, P.O. Box 341034, Los Angeles, CA 90034, (310) 559-8968 [email protected] Vice President: David Bowers, (717) 414-7574, [email protected]: Marlene Clark, 274 Church Street, #6B Guilford, CT 06437, (203) 689-5730, Skype: marlene.clark, [email protected]: Eric Lampert, (215) 939-5555, [email protected]

Regional Vice Presidents

New England: CT MA RI NH ME VTJoseph Caulfield (603) 654-6022, [email protected] Atlantic: NY NJ Eric DeCamps, (718) 896-5861, [email protected] Atlantic: PA DE MD VAWV DCPhil Milstead, (703) 481-5271, [email protected] Atlantic: FL AL GA MS NC SCDebbie Leifer (404) [email protected] Plains: KY TN OH IN MIJania Taylor, (231)242-8242, [email protected]: IL MN WI MO ND NE KS SD IAShaun Rivera, (618) 781-8621 [email protected] Cental States: TX AR OK NM LAJeff Lanes, (713)850-1770, [email protected]: CA AZ NV HIRon Ishimaru, (808) 428-6019, [email protected]: WA OR UT ID CO AK WY MTMichael Roth, (503)493-8316, [email protected] Chow (604) [email protected] of Young Magicians Director Jann Wherry Goodsell, 329 West 1750 North, Orem, Utah 84057 (801) 376-0353. [email protected]

Living Past National Presidents

Bradley M. Jacobs, Richard L. Gustafson, Roy A. Snyder, Bruce W. Fletcher, James E. Zachary, David R. Goodsell, Fr. Cyprian Murray, Michael D. Douglass, George Schindler, Dan Rodriguez, Dan Garrett, Donald F. Oltz Jr., Craig Dickson, Loren C. Lind, Gary D. Hughes, Harry Monti, Jann Wherry Goodsell, Warren J. Kaps, Ed Thomas, Jay Gorham, John Apperson, Richard M. Dooley, Andy Dallas, Maria Ibáñez, Bruce Kalver, Mike Miller, Mark Weidhaas, Vinny Grosso

affairs of the Society.”I think we constantly have a number

of compeers who would like to help the S.A.M., but who are unsure how they should go about it. More than forty years later, Dad’s suggestions are still good ones.

His list is short (probably because he was running out of room in the column – as I am too), but I would still like to add a few more suggestions to Dad’s list: 1) Download and read the Blue Book (col-lection of committee reports) and meeting

minutes for each National Council meeting to stay up to date on what we are doing. 2) Join us on SAMTalk and Facebook. These tools allow us to interact quickly and globally. 3) Keep the lines of communica-tion open with your Deputy and/or your Regional Vice President.

The officers of the S.A.M. are working to help you, but we need your support and communication to do our jobs most effec-tively. So please, follow the above advice. Get Involved, and Pass It On!


http://www.showbizmagic.net

Newsworthy


Let’s DO Magic ShowJanuary 19, 2013, Worcester, MABy Bill Hoagland and Lyn Dillies

It’s difficult to put into words all the great people who made this day such a huge success. An idea from illusionist Lyn Dillies started the plan of doing a magic show to raise much needed money for David Oliver. (Due to a rare lung condition from working with doves for more than twenty-five years, David is in need of a double lung transplant.) Magician Bill Hoagland offered to help her and the fun started. Lyn and Bill strategized on having the fundraiser in a centralized location in Massachusetts (David’s home area). They decided on Worcester, Massachusetts.

David’s closest magic friends were contacted first: Mike Bent, Jon Stetson, Steve Kradolfer, Bob Riordan, and Joe Howard from the Boston area and Eric DeCamps and Peter Samelson from New York. Chipper Lowell, who wanted to take part in his friend’s benefit, volunteered to fly in from Los Angeles.

Bob Riordan offered to handle the program book and all the ads. Ian Rich was responsible for orga-nizing it all into a program. Comedy hypnotist Jim

Spinnato suggested holding the show at Clark University in Worcester. Mike McKenna, director of the Office of Student Leadership and Programming at the university, offered the theater for free. Mike also purchased 250 tickets so students of the school could attend the show for free.

Volunteers were abundant. Mike Miller and Frank Monaco came in to stage manage the shows. Others came from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Las Vegas to help

backstage, run sound or lights, sell tickets, usher people in, direct traffic, and take photos and videos. A local grocery chain, Stop & Shop, donated dinner for all the volunteers and entertainers – fifty plus people.

590 people attended the matinee: the evening performance was standing room only. Members of David’s family, neighbors, students, teachers, friends, his S.Y.M. kids, friends from Tannen’s Camp, strangers, even David’s lung doctor were in attendance. And what a show they saw: emcee Eric DeCamps, Jon Stetson, Steve Kradolfer, Mike Bent, Joe Howard, Chipper Lowell, and Peter Samelson rocked the house. Closing the shows were the spectacular illusions of Lyn Dillies, ending with a DoMagic costume change and explosion of purple confetti and streamers, as a tribute to David’s trademark color purple. Many of David’s fans and friends were wearing their DoMagic t-shirts.

The money that was raised was well beyond anyone’s expec-tations. But what the whole event did for David’s mental health was over the top, with smiles, tears, hugs, laughter, and people wishing him well all day. You could feel the love and support. At the end of the night, David stood up in the front row with the intent of offering his thanks to the performers and crowd; however, he was rendered speechless by the overwhelming emotions of the moment. The audience leapt to its feet, clapped, and cheered for the longest time. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was a well-deserved ovation for someone who has given so much to magic and who has enriched the lives of countless aspiring magicians.

Photos by Steve Wronker

Jon Stetson

Lyn Dillies

Chipper Lowell

Eric DeCamps

Updates From oUr s.a.m. members

ASSEMBLY NEWSSociety of American Magicians Monthly News

2 ROOts in magic’s

tRaditiOn

SAN FRANCISCO, CA— Greeting the new year, magicians and friends gathered to celebrate the basic principles and foundation of our magical craft. Rich Seguine gave the teach-in, a superb and cogent demonstration of stacking the deck, with two different versions of the same principle. First he presented Paul Curry’s 1942 mas-terpiece Out of This World, which has spawned many variations. Next Rich followed up with Harry Lorayne’s Out of This Universe. Safire Lin ably assisted for both routines. The effect is simple and elegant and allows the mage to tailor the presentation to the audience. Rich focused attention on Safire’s intuitive talent to make the correct selections.Beginning the performances, Stu

Bacon charmed with a number pre-diction. Displaying a clock dial with one hand, he asked for a number on the clock. The number was spelled and the hand moved to that location. Spelling of the location’s number and the next location’s moved the hand to a number corresponding with Stu’s prediction. Hippo Lau deftly presented a card predic-tion. Choosing an indicator card, he asked Stu to cut the deck into several piles and remove them until three piles remained. When the top card of each pile was shown, it was an Ace. Hippo produced a dramatic ending by revealing the indicator card was also an Ace. Walt Johnson enacted a humorous drama with as-sistance from John Caris. Pouring some Coke into two plastic cups, Walt placed a cup on his head and asked John to do the same. The two mages stood up and revolved in a circle. Then Walt turned his cup over onto his head and asked John to do so. Walt’s cup was empty, but was John’s? After some deliberation John turned over his cup; of course, it was empty.Returning to the stage, Rich

exhibited an enchanted die. The number three was selected, and the die was placed on a stand so that three was not the number on top. The audience chanted and waved their hands in magical gestures. Behold: the die popped over bringing three to the top. With Stu and Rich assisting, John finished the night’s show with Karl Fulves’s Royal Minding Reading. It is also an excellent stacking the deck routine but applying mind power or the Force, if you will. Tamaka, Rob Shapiro, and Mary Caris were involved in audience participation, enjoying the evening’s wonders and assisting with the cookie vanishing routine. —John CarisGolden Gate Assembly 2 meets first Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Community Room of Taraval Police Station, 2345 24th Avenue, San Francisco. Contact Tamaka [email protected] (415) 531-9332 http://www.facebook.com/groups/249018441875771/ for more details.

4 egg Bag LectURe

& magic YOU can maKe

PHILADELPHIA, PA— Our January meeting featured a superb lecture on the Egg Bag by Jeff Carson followed by exceptional presentations given by eleven of our members, each of whom shared wonderful magic effects that can be made for a nominal cost. In his “not to be missed” comprehensive Egg Bag lecture, Jeff provided tips on handling, load production, effective use of audience volunteers, and other gems that most of us who do the effect had not seen published elsewhere. Following Jeff’s lecture we began

the “Make Your Own Magic” segment of the evening. Bill Brown started things off on a light note by demonstrating a very easy to make mentalism Clippo effect utilizing a sheet of paper containing pictures of various fruits. Joe Festa then demonstrated how to make an inex-pensive magic table using supplies

from your local hardware store. Bill Manning then wowed everyone by explaining how to do a walk around Needle through Balloon with a five-inch pin. Peter Cuddihy then explained how to make a foolproof Miser’s Dream using any can and a coin with a special gimmick.Richard Horn followed Peter with a

fine royal flush effect that can easily be performed with double-faced cards that you can make yourself. Reba Strong showed how to fashion a colorful paper box out of four sheets of construction paper that can be used for any purpose including the Gozinta Boxes. After Reba, Jeff Carson demonstrated a wonderful prediction effect using the face of a clock that can be performed anywhere at any time. Bob Lamphere then did a wonderful Cut and Restored Rope routine utilizing a length of plastic tube capped at the top and bottom with holes cut in both sides that he described as his Rope Restorer. Following Bob, Charles Murter showed everyone an amazing utility device he designed that allows a coin worker to steal a jumbo coin from his back pocket with ease. Hank Strasser then ended the evening by demonstrat-ing a very versatile frame that he assembled that is instrumental in various mentalism effects including the infamous Magic Square. It was a most amazing night of very enter-taining magic. The evening was so good that we decided ahead of time to record it on film for posterity;

the DVD memorializing it will be placed in the Assembly 4 archives. —Peter CuddihyJames Wobensmith Assembly 4 meets the third Thursday at 7:00 p.m. at the Bustleton Memorial Post, 810 (American Legion) 9151 Old Newtown Road. Contact www.sam4.org/ for more details.

6 ceLeBRitY gUest Visit

BALtImORE, mD— The Kel-lar-Thurston Assembly has been very busy the past three months. All of our monthly meetings have been well attended. The month of January, 2013 we were all delighted to have two special guests. These are professional entertainers who travel all over the country doing several hundred shows each year. Rick Smith Jr. does close-up and stage magic. He has been on America’s Got Talent, the Tonight Show, and several others. Rick also holds the Guinness world record for throwing playing cards 216 feet at a speed of 92 mph. Also attending with Rick was his fellow performer, Bill Majumozo. Bill is a profession-al juggler and was fantastic. Thanks to both for attending.We had a card theme for this

month’s meeting. Starting off was Howie Schwarzman doing a wonderful invisible card transfer routine. Next up was Oniel Banks, who did a nice selected card routine. Tony Anastasi, using a blank deck of cards, was able to change back and forth from faces and backs. Ralph Fowler using five one-dollar bills was able to predict which serial number would match his predic-tion. Mike, using a clear die and deck of cards, did matching the card selected routine. Howard Katz, using a magazine at random, was able to read minds and find a selected word. Neil also did a card routine. Andy London, our president, did a nifty card routine. Dr. Ira Kolman, using five business cards, did a “Will the Cards Match” routine. Jay

MARCH 2013 Volume 102, Number 10

Go To:

WWW.MUM-MaGazinE.coM and use the easy submission form to file your report


Bill Brown demonstrating a great mentalism Clippo effect


Assembly News

Silverman did a very nice torn and restored card trick. Les Albert did two nice card routines that were amazing. —Rudy JacksonKellar-Thurston assembly #6 meets each month, first thursday @ 8:00 pm. Held at The Magic Warehouse - 11419 Cronridge Drive, suite #10 in Owings Mills, Maryland 21117 (410-561-0777) Contact Andy London - President [email protected] Go to: www.baltimoresam.com for more details.

7 the WizaRd’s BanQUet

2013

OmAHA, NE— January brings the traditional Wizard’s Banquet to Omaha to celebrate the ac-complishments of the previous year and kick start the coming program year. Excitement brewed because we had the privilege of once again honoring a Nebraska magician with the David P. Abbott award. The worthy recipient was Luis Villamonte from the Lincoln Assembly. Luis graced us with the performance of one of his most popular routines as part of the program. He also runs a nice magic shop in Lincoln that spe-cializes in magic kits – one of the largest volume operations in the country.

Walk-around performers included Neil Bable and Denny Rourke, but Ron Gerard was captured showing off some of his prowess. Dean Walter Graham, who was our emcee, opened the stage show that featured Ron Gerard, S.A.M. President Chris Bontjes, Chase Hasty , Vincent Villamonte – Luis’s son who was in the DVD Make Believe – and Jek Kelly. Luis performed last. President Bontjes used this occasion to present Denny Rourke with a citation from the S.A.M.

This year’s excellent show featured a wide range of talents as well as a mixture of ages among the performers – magicians and a juggler. The venue was one different from that used for previous banquets, but served very good food and will likely be considered for next year’s event. It was nice to see non-assembly members come out and support this event and provide incentive for the performers.2012 seemed like a banner year

for our assembly and included a bunch of excellent lectures, some unique events, the garage sale, and, perhaps most noteworthy, the creation of an S.Y.M. group, now in its infancy. In our recent history there seems to be a new vitality; credit should be given to many members who have contrib-uted to Assembly 7. The future looks good for magic in Nebraska! —Jerry GolmanavichAssembly 7 usually meets on the third Monday of each month at the Southwest Church of Christ near 124th St. and West Center Road, right across from where Hooters used to be. Contact Jerry Gol-manavich [email protected] (402) 390-9834 omahamagicalsociety.com for more details.

8 gOing mentaL in

st. LOUis

St. LOuIS, mO— The theme of our January 10, 2013, meeting was “Perform What You Like, But Perform Something.” This night worked out quite well. We had Randy Kalin telling us a story about a puzzle that was mystify-ing. Mary Ann Blowers chose a card from a deck that was passed around and shuffled by many people before she got a hold of them; Dan Todd had correctly predicted the card in advance by writing it down on his business card.

Larry Minth performed a “brick” solid effect followed by Dani Garcia and his Chop Cup routine. George Van Dyke provided us all with black matches and demon-strated several effects that can be performed with them. Sandy and her dog Rocky entertained the troops with a small piano bit.January 24 featured “A Mental

Magic Lecture.” Dan Todd and Columbus Smith covered just about everything that mentalist employ to entertain us: bags for billet swapping, bags for forcing, bags for identification, short pencils, nail writers , and book and magazine test methods. But then you knew that, didn’t you! —Dan ToddMount Tabor United Church of Christ, 6520 Arsenal, St. Louis MO 63139 Contact Dick Blowers [email protected] (314) 846-8468 Assembly8.com for more details.

11 ROpe magic

CINCINNAtI, OH— Leland Pennington opened the meeting with comments regarding the passing of the Dean Emeritus of Cincinnati magicians Bill Brewe on November 13, 2012. There was discussion of restarting a youth group and a committee was assigned the task to pursue this. Jeff Brown announced that the en-tertaining at Children’s Hospital will resume in the spring.The theme for the magician of

the month competition was rope magic. Joe Papania was up first and tried to teach John Blaylock how to make the impossible knot. Bill Winzig, with the help of Denny Metz and Bill Pryor, performed the rope thru the body effect. Bill Pryor then presented a clever multiple-phase Professors’ Nightmare routine. Don Hinton had a rope change-bag routine and produced a box of Tide. Larry Payne presented a rope routine in which the rope is cut in half and then the two ends are tied into a knot. Then the knot is moved, vanishes, and the rope is whole again.Ken Klosterman performed

Harry Garrison’s version of the rope thru the neck with some of his original patter. John Blaylock performed an effect with a rope tied thru a block of wood with a hole in the center, and the block magically is freed from the rope. Denny Metz amazed us with his fastest one-handed method of

tying a knot in a rope. While the members consumed some festive refreshments, the judges made their choice for magician of the month: 1st place – Bill Pryor, 2nd – Denny Metz, 3rd – Larry Payne, and 4th – John Blaylock. Con-gratulations to all the performers. The meeting ended with a fun gift exchange. —John MartiniQueen City Mystics, Assembly 11 generally meets on the 2nd Friday of the month at Haines House of Cards in Cincinnati, Ohio.

13 neW YeaR magic

DALLAS, tX— President Mark Jensen welcomed the members of the Dallas Magic Clubs to Theater 166 at Crosspointe and started off with a few announcements concerning upcoming lectures. Guests included Addison Wilson and Brady McCain. Dr. Mike Smith reviewed the

book Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, written by Christopher Sanford. The book chronicles the relation-ship between the two men and their eventual falling out due to divergent views on the spiritualist movement.

Dr. Mike then reviewed and sampled a music CD by the group Nox Arcana, which he thought may be good for certain types of shows (Halloween, bizarre magic, etc.). Mark Jensen reviewed a trick created by club member Dal Sanders, called Mental De-duck-shun. The trick features a bag of different rubber ducks. After an audience member selects their favorite duck, the magician reveals his prediction and shows that it matches the spectator’s choice. The effect comes in holiday themes as well, featuring Christmas ducks, Halloween The Great Todd

Mike Smith reviews Masters of Mystery

Luis Villamonte and President Bob Gehringer


Assembly News

ducks, etc.Cinde Sanders displayed a new

effect that she uses near the end of her show. A child joins the performer on stage and is asked to sign the back of a black-and-white poster of Cinde’s stage character. The audience is asked to imagine their favorite colors and “throw” them to the poster – and the signed poster is now shown to be in color.Jeff Hallberg reviewed the DVD

Women in Boxes, which is a docu-mentary about the history of stage illusions, told from the perspec-tive of the female assistants. Inter-viewees include Gay Blackstone, Frances Willard, Pam Thompson, Tammy Calvert, and Nani Darnell. Wrapping up, Frank Seltzer briefly reviewed a book by Pete McCabe titled Scripting Magic. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to socializing and sessioning with fellow magicians.The Dallas Magic Club, Assembly 13 meets at Theater 166 at Crosspointe Community Center in Carrollton, Texas, the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Contact Reade Quinton [email protected] (972) 400-0195 www.dallasmagic.org for more details.

17mentaLism mOnth!

SPRINgFIELD, mA— We started our January meeting with Leonard sharing some tips and tricks on the napkin rose, which led to a mini-session of idea sharing and discussion. A great way to set the mood before the business meeting! On to the magic! Tom Gentile

started off our mentalism-themed meeting with a sketchbook pre-diction. The audience decided on a perpetrator’s face, and a “mug-shot” was shown to match perfectly. Tom used his day job as a presentational hook, a nice touch. Rich Pinsonnault performed Alex Elmsley’s Fan Prediction; a card chosen by one volunteer matched a card previously chosen by another volunteer. Michael Wald followed with a very clean Psychic Die. A large die is placed into a box, with the uppermost number remem-bered. The participant placed the

lid on, and Michael divined the number chosen through various verbal tricks. Ed Kazar, our resident mentalist,

performed Mind Spy, revealing a word chosen by the volunteer with no fishing or fumbling – an efficient handling of the word divination. Bob Carroll performed Double Identification, revealing the identity of two cards selected by two different participants. As always, Bob makes the simplest things hilarious. Peter Lennis came ready to rock with several effects. First, Mentacube, which is a completely hands-off color divination. He then performed Any Card At Any Number with a birthday-book hook, followed by a very nice Do As I Do routine. Great mix of effects!Leonard Nadeau performed a

routine using mini cards hung all over a Christmas tree. One was thought of, and after scanning the tree (and some fun bantering with/by the rest of us), he divined the card someone thought of. Pj Pinsonnault performed Michael Vincent’s Kismet, in which he and an audience member perform the same effect on each other, and each finds the other’s freely selected card.

Rick Mayers performed a nice triple prediction in which a vacation spot, a date, and a playing card were all predicted while the participants were merely thinking of them. A nice handling of a well-known principle here, with little touches that worked really well.A newcomer, Kyle Barbacki,

performed X-Act for us. He predicted the card that would be at a freely selected number. Welcome to the club, Kyle! And

Rich Gilbert, who was suspi-ciously quiet all night, vanished a white Bengal tiger. Or so he says. —Pj PinsonnaultAssembly 17 meets the first Friday of every month at RP Magic Shop, 69 East Street Ludlow, MA. For information, contact Rich Gilbert at [email protected] and visit us at www.assembly17.org.

21 chRistmas magic

HARtFORD, Ct— Since we don’t meet in December, we had our Christmas magic tonight. We started with a quick business meeting in which it was noted that, so far, over $14,000 has been collected in wristband sales for David Oliver. Quite a few of us are looking forward to the D. O. Benefit show in Worcester on January 19.President Dan Sclare started

out by showing an electric tea-light—and then blew it out! He also displayed his collection of instant-art props that a former fellow-schoolteacher made for him. He has one for Christmas, Chanukah, Halloween, and others. Peter Lennis had all of us take a card apiece from a deck. We each showed him our card before dropping it into a box. One card chosen from that box matched a prediction Peter had written on a slate. He then borrowed a business card and carefully tore a hole in its center. He then threaded the card onto a rope and covered the card with a scarf. Under cover of that scarf, he was able to remove the card from the rope with no further tearing. Upping the ante, he threaded the rope through the handle of a metal cup and covered

it. This, too, was removed intact.Later, he borrowed a dollar bill

and folded it into a vague bird-like shape. Taking on bird-like properties, the bill floated in mid-air. Next, he used five cups and a squeaky ball. No matter which cup Norman St. Laurent chose to hide the ball, Peter was able to determine its location. —Dana RingAssembly 21 meets at Angelo’s On Main, 289 South Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06107. Contact Dana Ring [email protected] (860) 5239888 ctmagic.org for more details.

22 LOs angeLes cLOse Up

cOntest

LOS ANgELES, CA— The January 21st gathering fell on a mild and pleasant evening in Los Angeles. The meeting opened, as usual, with some humor from the joke book of our president Jim Callen. The assembly was honored with a visit from the S.A.M. National Treasurer Eric Lampert, who was visiting from Philadel-phia. Eric was present as a second reading and a unanimous vote was given for his son Harrison, elected into Southern Califor-nia Assembly 22 membership. Congratulations and welcome to Harrison, who now resides in the Los Angeles area.Our secretary, PNP Ed Thomas,

then had the sad duty to conduct the S.A.M. Broken Wand Ceremony for our late compeer Bill Chaudet, who passed away on January 5, 2013. Louis William Chaudet II was a charter member of the Magic Castle, a member of Assembly 22 since about 1940, a two-term president of the assembly, and a member of the S.A.M. Hall of Fame. Bill became a full-time professional magician after leaving the U.S. Army at the close of World War II and remained so until age and health forced his retirement.The program for the evening

was close-up magic, a competi-tion for the annual trophy. As has been the tradition, the previous year’s trophy winner produces the program, and that meant

Go To:


Tom Gentile performs some blind mind reading

Dan Sclare with tealight


Assembly News

Bill Yamane for this show. Bill produced a great show with nine performers. Opening the show was Tom Meseroll with a sponge ball routine, John Born’s Matrix, a Three-Card Monte routine, and the cups and balls. Michael Mezmer, a Los Angeles area professional, next presented his unique Path of the Ninja routine, a smash-and-stab type effect. The third performer, Matt Savin, did a nice three-trick card set before Bill Perron, with a comedic pre-sentation, used a flashing magic ray gun to restore a playing card torn into quarters. Act five was John Engman, using a bright green shoestring to perform a knot tying routine and a grandmother’s necklace effect to illustrate the “lessons of life.” Bob Bolivar, a frequent Magic

Castle performer, performed a series of card and coin effects, all great magic, and concluded with the presentation of a unique wood puzzle that remained the same size despite adding pieces. Henry Springer opened with a coin production/vanish routine, did Dr. Jacob Daley’s Cards Up the Sleeve, and concluded with Eric Jones’s Oxyclean card effect. Our eighth performer was our new member, Harrison Lampert. Harrison performed a very entertaining series of card effects and demonstrated the fact that he will be another of Assembly 22’s very talented young members. The closing act on our close-up program was John Richmond, performing a three-trick set of unusual card effects. —Steven L. JenningsSouthern California Assembly 22 meets the third Monday each month at 8:00 PM, St. Thomas Moore Parish Hall, 2510 South Fremont Avenue, Alhambra, California Contact Ed Thomas [email protected] (213) 3828504 for more details.

24neW magic

ALBANy/tROy, Ny— The first meeting of the year was a lot of fun. We welcomed three visitors, possibly new members. Joe Goode brought the meeting to order and then conducted the election of officers. The roster remains the same as last year: President Joe Goode, Vice President David MacDonald, Secretary Cory Haines, and Treasurer Bob Connors. Joe then brought up the possibility of a lecture sometime

during the upcoming year, also a fundraiser. There was some dis-cussion and ideas presented on both subjects. The topic for the January meeting

was “New Magic.” Helen Patti opened the entertainment with a short performance to music, producing feather flowers and a butterfly from a large handker-chief. Roger Borgen then gave us a really excellent demonstration of stacking a deck, with some math involved. David MacDonald asked visitor Skip to assist him with Henry Evans’s Open Predic-tion. He followed this with a phone effect.

After a short break for refresh-ments and an opportunity to meet the newcomers, we returned to the entertainment. Ace Russo had us laughing with a fun mental routine in which Zak Middleton selected and signed the card. Skip then took the stage with the classic Die Box. Norb Kosinski was really entertaining as he had Skip select a card, then asked him questions, telling him to lie as he answered. Funny! Zak then performed the Peanut Butter and Jelly illusion with Helen assisting. Joe came forward with a coin effect. Then Bob showed us a new small slate, which can be used for a prediction. Dave McClements concluded

the evening’s entertainment with two card tricks. The first incor-porated three different ways of predicting a card. The second was Jim Steinmeyer’s Lie Detector. The quality of entertainment was excellent. A good start to the year! —Helen PattiAssembly 24 meets 2nd Tuesday of each month, S.W. Pitts Hose, Co., Latham, NY www.sam24.org

26 tRicKs fOR the

UnempLOYment Line

FAIRLAwN, NJ— The stated theme was “A Trick for Use in the Unemployment Line.” First up was

guest Richard Micucci Jr., I.B.M. Ring 113 president. Rich used his new cell phone to print out a hard copy of his business card. That’s a handy little gadget!Phil Schwartz did Micro-

Psychic, causing a small nut to unwind itself from a bolt. Tony Gerbio made a silk fly around. He showed us some new acquisitions, including a different version of making a nut unthread itself, while inside an open bottle resting on a spectator’s palm. Richard Bangs did the Haunted Key followed by Psi-Key, with the business end of the key held firmly in a spectator’s hand, causing it to turn so that it was no longer aligned with the handle.Ron Wohl showed us how to float

a paper clip in a glass of water. Good bar bet! Then, Ron showed two distinctly colored pieces of rope of different lengths and asked Danny Sylvestri to tie a silk hand-kerchief around one of them. Ron then twisted the two ropes together and the silk was found tied to the other rope!Danny Sylvestri did some

smooth penetrations of a ring and a velvet cord. John Mintz offered a Herb Zarrow trick he liked because it seemed as though you weren’t doing anything sneaky. Two cards were freely selected and then by touching the deck on each of its four corners, a face-up four was found. Mintz counted to the fourth card from each side of it and discovered the two selected cards. (We were pretty sure he did something sneaky somewhere!) Danny Sylvestri came back to

borrow a dollar bill and placed it together with his own twenty-dol-lar bill into Bob Delaney’s hand. Danny removed one from Bob’s hand, and caused the two bills to switch places. Del Dixon showed how we can

use anyone’s name to discover a selected card. Tony Gerbio spelled out a name, looked at the last card he dealt, and then placed the deck together. Del spelled out the name “Phil Schwartz” to discover the selected card on the last letter.Finally, John Henderson did

Jon Armstrong’s Tiny Plunger routine, and showed how a tiny “I-Plunger” could pick up any desired number of cards, and even discover a selected card! It was an interesting night, and as Richard Bangs observed, “It’s fun to fool magicians!” —Del DixonAssembly 25 meets the third Friday of the month at the VFW Hall, Veterans Place in Elmwood Park, New Jersey. Contact Phil

Schwartz [email protected] www.livemagicguide.com/sam25 for more details.

30 memORize me

AtLANtA, gA— The evening started with Debbie Leifer, our emcee, introducing Merritt Ambrose. He was having halluci-nations with cards, turning them from Aces to Jacks to Aces. Joe Turner had a packet of cards cut off a shuffled deck with a card re-membered. He then asked that a number of piles be dealt; each pile was examined for the chosen card. In the last pile, the spectator was asked to turn cards face up until asked to stop. One card was turned face down in the middle of that pile – the chosen card, of course.Terry Wenham asked three

people to take packs of cards, choose one, and then pretend that they hated all but one of them. Terry eliminated all the hated cards and called out the ones that were loved.Matt Baker told us the legend

of Cassandra, who could predict the future, but no one believed her. Matt took a predicted card and placed it in a clear stand. He then had a card chosen and left it in the spectator’s hand. The card in the stand became blank and the predicted card was in the hand. Jim Mangham presented a red box with a Bob Hummer flower. He had a favorite card picked out of a four-card pack. After many moves the chosen card was the only one face up.Dan Garrett gave out a brochure

to someone. He then presented a bowl of matchbooks from different places. The chosen matchbook matched the resort brochure that was passed out. Dan then asked that someone to underline his or her favorite color from ones printed on a card. In order to assure that there was no trickery, he asked that all of the colors be underlined. Dan then predicted the chosen color. This effect will be published in The Linking Ring.

The Professional Development was presented by Jim Driscoll and Keith Rainey. They presented a mini workshop on memorized decks. They presented variations by Martin Joyal, Simon Aronson, and Juan Tamariz. Keith suggested that you design your own stack so you could do those effects you love to do. It was an interest-ing and well presented session. —Carol Garrett

Zachary Middleton performs a Rubik’s cube prediction with

the help of Helen Patti


Assembly News

Assembly 30 meets the second Tuesday of the month at Piccadilly Cafeteria, I-85/North Druid Hills Road, Atlanta, Georgia.

31a magicaL mOnth in

indianapOLis

INDIANAPOLIS, IN—January was a magical month in Indianapolis. In addition to our monthly Assembly 31 meeting, our annual S.A.M./I.B.M. winter show, free and open to the public, featured Patrick Smith and Craig Stone and was produced and emceed by our very own The Amazing Barry (Rice). Adding to the month of magic, the 2013 Third Annual Winter Magic Festival took place the weekend of January 18-20. It was presented by the IndyFringe in association with IndyMagic Monthly. Five separate shows were repeated through-out the weekend. And, of course, every first Tuesday features an IndyMagic Monthly performance at the Theatre on the Square. In-dianapolis is fast becoming a “happening” town for magic and for magicians.

We had a really good turnout, considering it was the flu season, for our “Out of the Box” meeting. We began the evening by auction-ing off a beautiful close-up pad, created and custom built by Jay Newby and donated by Ed Filby. The close up pad generated $50 for our club treasury. Also included in the auction were a couple of char-donnay wine bottles with magical labels donated by Tom Winter-rowd. Unfortunately the bottles were empty!Taylor Martin earned the distinc-

tion of being our first performer of 2013 doing his 1,2,3,4 Coins and a Card. We witnessed his original and very effective Taylor Twist. Taylor also shared with us another of his original adaptations – the Shrinking Card Box. It was definitely “out of the box” magic.

Tom Winterrowd did his version of Gene Keeny’s Three Card Assembly. President Steve Spence did a very nice coin routine in which the coins diminished in size and then reappeared through the air. The coins were “out of a red box.”Jay Newby was our professor

for our monthly teaching session. This month he selected two effects from JB Bobo’s New Modern Coin Magic. First, from chapter 10, Jay shared a very carefully orches-trated description of the secret turnover moves for the Okito coin box. Jay even provided a compli-mentary Okito box for the S.A.M. members who were present. The original coin boxes sold for fifty cents each in 1911! Jay then turned to chapter 12 of Bobo and taught us the Milton Kort’s routine of Coins through the Table, using four coins and an expanded shell. —Dale BensonAssembly 31 meets the first Monday of the month at 7:00 pm. If the first Monday conflicts with a holiday weekend, we postpone the meeting by one week. Unless otherwise announced, the meeting location is the Irvington United Methodist Church, 30 Audubon Road, on the east side of the city. See our website for details. Contact Steve Spence [email protected] (317) 507-4534 www.sam31.com for more details.

32 “ROUnd items” night

LyNCHBuRg, VA— A magical new year started off suc-cessfully at Tharp Funeral Home where (thanks to compeer and newly elected assembly president Patrick Hubble, who also happens to be a mortician and provides a free meeting room for our local magicians) a small but active group of members attended. Business was taken care of quickly as Glen Rae was elected to fill the vacant Sergeant-at-Arms slot among assembly officers, which came as a result of the passing of compeer Dale Rumsmoke and the corre-sponding shift of other officers to fill the vacancy. Following Glen’s election, all assembly officers are in place for 2013.A mini-lecture was featured this

month as member Bob Staton presented a segment on “ball moves” – with and without silks – of sleights, vanishes, and flour-ishes, including many variations that were of his own origination.

The theme of the month was Magic with Things That Are Round. The assembly’s newest member, Michael Kinnaird, who found himself unable to mentally decipher membership numbers of other members (since you’re new Mike, we’ll let it slide this time), asked for the same in order to make application to the S.A.M. for assembly membership. Mike then proceeded to entertain us with a unique business card app on his smart phone, which resulted in him pulling his business card from his phone. He also presented a ring-on-chain effect with a presen-tation he calls the “ring of truth.”Bob Wallin shared a series

of effects with round objects including a production of a large coin, a floating ball and an incredible bottle cap pen-etration of a beer bottle. John Jennings took his turn showing a Tenyo effect that nearly visibly shrinks coins to a smaller size. The group then discussed ways this device could be utilized in a magical routine.As a meeting bonus, Bob Wallin

brought and played a video of “a candid interview with David Copperfield” that was from last summer’s convention in Las Vegas. This provided several points of discussion among members.Members also discussed taking

a road trip north to our nearest neighboring Assembly 115 in Charlottesville, VA. The assembly there was reactivated about a year ago after many years of inactiv-ity; it feels wonderful to see the S.A.M. growing here in Virginia. To any 115 members reading this, a very grand welcome back to the S.A.M. from all the folks here at Virginia’s oldest Assembly. —John JenningsThe Hersy Basham Assembly 32 meets the third Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at Tharp Funeral Home, 220 Breezewood Drive, Lynchburg, VA. Contact John Jennings [email protected] (434) 851-6240 for more details.

35 magic WithOUt a net

POugHkEEPSIE, Ny— Our January meeting was attended about two dozen members who shared favorite things they do when asked “to do a trick” without having their bag of tricks on hand. We split our night of impromptu magic into three tiers – magic with nothing, with a little

something, and those effects that look impromptu. Frank Monaco performed a great effect using cards thought of by numerous members of the audience. Sometimes an impromptu effect deviates from its intended course as Marty Steinberg found out and Marc Berger had to throw in a rope. We learned that sometimes our own bodies work against us when Terry Morgan showed us a couple effects using a spectator’s fingers.Frank used Ryan Dutcher to

display a wonderful arms pene-trating the floor stunt. Sam Patton and Ron Levine both taught us simple number effects. Derrin Berger displayed an amazing feat of mentalism using a calculator. Harvey Berg discussed a great effect using an app. Ryan added a number of apps he enjoyed as well. Derrin presented an effect using a ring that has been in his family for generations. George Silverman showed us a great impromptu mentalism effect. Frank performed a few more effects including a three-cup routine taught to him by John Treyz many years ago. They say comedy always follows the rule of three, but I think we were all just as amused by Ryan’s fifth attempt to put the cups in the right order as his third attempt. Thanks to everybody who shared something at this meeting, making it filled with a lot of usable magic! —Craig KunaschkAl Baker Assembly No. 35 (usually) meets at 7:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month at the Milanese Italian Restaurant, 115 Main Street, Poughkeepsie, NY. Contact www.compumagic.com/sam35 for more details.

37 past pResidents night

DENVER, CO— January is the month of new beginnings and the Mile High Magicians Society wanted to do that by not forgetting the past and the history of what makes Mile High magic great. The club celebrated all of the Past Presidents both living and passed from 1941 to 2013 in our annual tradition of Past Presidents Night.The evening began on a solemn

note by having a broken wand ceremony performed for one of our past presidents who was recently deceased, Robert “Poss” Posson. Past President Posson served our club in 1987 and died at the end of last year. Long time devoted club members Helen and

Jay Newby demonstrates the Okito Box


Assembly News

Lin Kier were assisted by S.A.M. PMP and current MHMS member Mark Weidhaas in performing the ceremony for their beloved friend and colleague. Our new beginnings were then

celebrated in the installation of new officers for 2013. Current officers are: President – Chad Wonder, Vice President – Matthew Brandt, Secretary – Connie Elstun, Treasurer – Dave Elstun, and Sergeant at Arms – Andrew Bates. Both Mark Weidhaas and club Past President Lindsay Smith conducted the ceremony.

The evening went on to become a celebration headed by President Chad Wonder with performances by Past President Bruce and Kitty Spangler (1971) who brought along their most coveted science magic experiments in sound in light rela-tivity. Past President Jerry Stoll (1988) performed an unexplain-able test in physic phenomenon with the use of books. Long time member and Past President Gene Gordon (1992) showed his delight-ful sleight-of-hand skills while the comical duo and Past Presi-dents Jeff and Karen Wake (2002) waited in the wings. Jeff and Karen brought out an enormous table filled with at least thirty-nine effects that they were going to perform in less than four minutes. Comedy abounded in their attempt. Then Mark Weidhaas, with the help of Past President Dave Elstun (1985, 2000, 2001, 2010) humored everyone with a segment of his Zany Professor act. Everyone had their cake and ate

it too with a club-provided cake and wonderful “Poss” inspired cookies provided by Past President Sharon Nuanes (1990). To round out the evening Past President Connie Elstun (2011) and both current and Past President Chad Wonder (2004, 2012) coxed the club members on to volunteer with a silly rendition of an old change bag. Fun and camaraderie were had by all, including the future of our club in all the new members present. —Connie ElstunAssembly 37 meets at the Riv-

erpointe Senior Center in Littleton Colordao Contact Chad Wonder [email protected] (303) 933-4118 www. milehighmagicians.com for more details.

52neW YeaR, neW magic

SAN ANtONIO, tX— On January 3, 2013, Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 held its monthly meeting at LaMad-eleine Restaurant. President Paul Amerson called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone to our first meeting of the new year. We had a great turnout, including members, wives, and guests. Welcome to guests Jim Cook and Zachary Rodriguez. Zachary is the grandson of member Doug Gorman. We had seven perform-ers tonight; first up was Paul Amerson, who asked Zachary to assist him with a change bag routine. Michael Tallon performed a mind-reading card effect, and Ray Adams entertained with Flip the Dog. Doug Gorman had us all laughing with his original routine called Uncorked, and Claude Crowe performed the jumbo card effect, Diamond Jack. Matthew Legare entertained us with a card effect All Outs, Think Of A Card. Guest Jim Cook performed a jumbo version of Twisted Sister.Ed Solomon was tonight’s

guest lecturer. Ed’s topic was his specialty: Storytelling Magic. In addition to enlightening us with tips for the storyteller, he performed a couple of effects to help illustrate some of his points. Not only was this an informa-tive lecture with something for everyone, but it was very enter-taining. Thanks, Ed, for the effort you put into this marvelous pre-sentation. Lecture Coordinator Michael

Tallon reminded everyone of the upcoming Paul Draper lecture on January 30th. Other lecturers coming to San Antonio in the next few months are Jay Leslie, Murray Hatfield, and Tim Sonefelt.Tonight’s door prize winners

were Jim Cook, Claude Crowe, and Ray Adams. Many thanks to President Paul Amerson for donating the door prizes. Brother John Hamman Assembly 52 meets at 7:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month at La Madeleine Restaurant, located at 722 N.W. Loop 410. The restaurant is inside Loop 410 on the access road between Blanco Rd. and

San Pedro. For more information, contact [email protected].

77 t.J. tana hOsts

mentaLism/BizaRRe

mASSAPEquA, Ny— With the aftermath of both hurricane Sandy and the tragedy in Con-necticut on people’s minds, The Mystics had a dark cloud in the dark month of January. But have no fear, for they channeled their efforts into their magic and are going to have a great year. It was decided by the officers, led by President John Lepre, and all of the members that our funds from our charity work will go toward the relief of Sandy for the next eighteen months.After the business meeting

adjourned, it was time to have our youngest member T.J. Tana host our Mentalism and Bizarre Magic Night. PP Phil Levy presented a new Max Krause piece called Quote Me, in which an inspiration-al quote chosen by a spectator was predetermined by Phil. Sergeant at Arms Bob Weinowitz performed some big ESP with cards to match. Steve Rodman showcased a trick of his that will soon be back on the market. Rodman’s Voodoo really perplexed us as to how a free choice of a body part suddenly vanished from a card held by a spectator. Mike Maione correctly called an entire shuffled deck held by two spectators. Lou Johnson performed Invisible Dice, recom-mending the trick to all that have to perform with nothing on them.President John Lepre Ludor

showcased Fiedler’s Flyer with a card reappearance to a frame. Gary Levenson brought out that day’s newspaper and predicted the sentence that was snipped at random. Charlie Muschetti wowed us by knowing which photographs would be chosen by which partici-pant. Our host T.J. Tana showed us what mentalism looks like for today’s young audiences. Using a borrowed iPhone, random numbers added and multiplied totaled a seven-digit number. It was T.J.’s own phone number. “Now every lady that I perform this for has my phone number.” That’s very slick, T.J. Gary Dudash closed in a truly bizarre fashion by cutting his thumb with a pocket knife, removing a tendon, and healing the wound again. It left all of us speechless. Next month we’re hosting Duane Laflin’s lecture on new ways to make your show

better and grander! Until then, see you at the diner.—Lou JohnsonL.I. Mystics Assembly #77 meets at 7:30PM on the second Monday of the month at The Community United Methodist Church. For more information, check www.limystics.org. Contact Lou Johnson [email protected] (516) 599-2612 www.limystics.org for more details.

88 JanUaRY

mini-WORKshOps

ANN ARBOR/yPSILANtI,MI— We did things a little different for our January meeting. Two of our members, Jim Placido and our Youth Representative, Tyler Sousa, showed us a couple of their specialties: Jim with tips on invisible thread, how to separate the strands and how to use it for the spinning Hummer Card routine. I’m not sure what I enjoyed more, Jim teaching us or watching the members try to work with the thread! (Many which were very good with it). Then Tyler, who is excellent with card manipula-tions, explained how to do the Hindu shuffle, the Elmsley count, the Flustration count, a Cross-Cut Force and a method of crimping a card to determine where the card is in a shuffled pack. Not everyone in our club does a lot with cards, so these methods are easy enough to use; most members picked up some valuable ideas for their next shows. The Ann Arbor Magic Club has been trying to change what is done at our meetings this last year, so we don’t have the same type of meetings year after year, which starts to get a little boring. Even though most of the members are more than willing to help with their own techniques, the Mini-Workshops have the group as a whole participating! —Randy A. SmithHank Moorehouse Assembly 88 meets on the 2nd Wed. 7PM Faith Lutheran Church, 1255 East Forest Ave, Ypsilanti, Michigan. Contact Randy A. Smith randy. [email protected] (313) 562-3875 www.aamagic.org for more details.

94 sOmething neW-ish

fOR a neW YeaR

SILICON VALLEy, CA— To kick off the new year, the focus of our January meeting was sharing works in progress for discussion

Helen and Lin Kier


Assembly News

and feedback.Ken Gielow showed he could

bestow the power of clairvoyance, enabling a spectator to correctly name the color of unseen cards. Kim Silverman had a card selected and shuffled back into the deck. He dealt four cards, saying one could be the chosen card. He turned that one invisible, showing the other three still visible, and had it placed upside down back into the deck. Of course, when Alan named his card, it was shown to be the only one upside down in the deck.Larry Wertman made a coin

travel invisibly from hand to hand. Phil Ackerly plucked bits of fuzz and rolled them into a (sponge) ball, which he used to demonstrate how WiFi made things travel invisibly and without any con-nection from place to place. Sy Hoff had cards chosen by three spectators, and then showed that he had correctly predicted all three. Carl Thomsen performed an Ambitious Card routine. John Jones used a penny to show the effects of inflation, with the penny getting bigger and bigger. Stan Sieler dealt several cards onto the table and had a spectator use a pair of invisible dice to select one of them – the only Joker among a whole bunch of Spades.Ken Gielow gave a review

of our Performance Experi-ence Program. Last year, members performed at seven events including indoor and outdoor activities at a hospital and VA medical facilities, walk-around magic at two concerts and a community awards luncheon. As an extension of our PEP, members Kim Silverman, Sy Hoff, Alan Leeds, and Phil Ackerly have been taking turns covering the Monday night restaurant gig of another member, Hugh MacDonald, who is traveling and performing in India.Before the meeting, Joe Caffall

taught a card routine using the handling of Karl Fulves’s Gemini Twins effect. —Joe CaffallWe do not currently have a regular meeting location. Please email [email protected] for informa-tion about an upcoming meeting. Contact Joe Caffall [email protected] (408) 578-8387 www.sam94.org for more details.

95 YOUR faVORite Bit Of

magic

VANCOuVER, CANADA—

Ray Roch was the host of the January 2013 meeting at his home in Tsawwassen, BC. While enjoying some nice snacks prepared by Ray and Pat Roch, the members had the privilege of viewing the recently aired TV documentary on Ray’s lifetime magic journey for the series Senior Living on Location. This extremely well done TV pro-duction featured clips of Ray’s various magic performance over the years and a very interesting interview with Ray on his success-ful magical life.Starting the evening of each ma-

gician’s favorite bit of magic was Lon Mandrake who, of course, being a mentalist, performed a mind reading effect with Glen LaBarre, which involved lists of

different movies on cards, from which Lon was able to determine which movie Glen had randomly thought of. Juan Garcia showed an effect he looked like he has fun doing which is a disappear-ing deck in a case. Ray Roch had a card chosen by Dennis Hewson from a shuffled deck and lost in a very convincing manner, yet was able to magically determine which card Dennis had chosen. Jens Henriksen forced a card with a toy switch blade style gun. Dennis Hewson, who loves ropes, performed a cut and restored and a vanishing knot rope routine. Dennis finished with a one-hand-ed cutting sequence to end up with the selected card being the only face down card in the deck.Rod Chow has been enjoying

performing hi-tech magic with his iPhone, but today pulled out his iPad for a stage version of the recently highly reviewed mind reading effect called Mind Lister found in Bruce Kalver’s recent M-U-M “Tech Tricks” column. Jens Henricksen returned with two colored elastic loops and demonstrated a fun transposition effect on his hand. Glen LaBarre,

looking fabulous, recently back from an extended stay in Mexico, performed his version of Profes-sor’s Nightmare, which contained some strong subtleties and good patter to make the routine so much more deceptive. Glen said this was developed and honed during his time in Mexico. —Rod ChowThe Carl Hemeon Assembly No. 95 meets the first Tuesday of each month at members’ homes. Contact Rod Chow [email protected] (604) 669-7777 www.sam95.com for more details.

104 aUctiOn time: fROm One

attic tO the next

wItCH CIty, SALEm, mA—Before our February 2013 business meeting, Len Lazar conducted the Bill Towne School of Magic class for a full table. The subject was Card Controls. These classes are a real treat for magicians of all levels and we highly recommend non-members dropping in to enjoy one of our greatest assets. Len’s next class will be on Money Magic, both paper and coin work. Class begins at 7:00 p.m.Member Burch Stokes brought

along wife Jamie as guest, along with their first born. Our second guest of the night was Amy Deschenes whose own daughter has recently been enjoying S.Y.M. 124 activities.President Bill Jensen performed

the ceremony to admit Paul Kearney to the assembly. Paul was heartily welcomed by all present. It was announced that Assembly 104 member Kayla Drescher has offi-cially joined the group of leaders for S.Y.M. 124. In further good news, Bill Jensen declared that last year’s joint S.Y.M. 124/S.A.M. 104 Magic Fest will be repeated full tilt at Camp Evergreen, in Andover, this August. That means the competition for next year’s S.Y.M. 124 president among the kids and hot dogs, swimming, fel-lowship, and a flea market for all. Bob Forrest served hot dogs to

all our unrepentant dieters as the annual 104 auction filled the night with unloved, unperformed, and, in some cases, unknown effects. Among the books, card gaffs, and coin DVDs was an enormous, clown-pleasing change bag and an equally huge, hollow wand from which Florida-length snakes were designed to uncoil and shoot out. Royal took pity on the giant change bag and claimed it. As for the wand, the snakes reluctantly oozed slowly out of it, perhaps frightened by the crowd. One by one they pathetically fell to the floor, each followed even slower by the next snake. This garnered a lot of laughter, but no takers. Jim Loscutoff repacked the springy family into the tube and marked it as headed to next month’s S.Y.M 124 auction.In a move that surprised absolute-

ly no one, including wife Kathy, Bob Forrest looked up from his hot dog machines and won a book. Next month, our guest lecturer will be Duane Laflin. Our holiday party is coming up in March this year, instead of February, with food, location, and magic to be announced. —Bob ForrestInformation on SAMCON and Witch City Assembly 104 can be found at the website. S.A.M. 104 meets the first Wednesday of each month, September-June, 7 p.m., at the First Baptist Church of Salem, 292 Lafayette Street, Salem Mas-sachusetts. Contact Bob Forrest [email protected] (339) 227-0797 www.sam104.com for more details.

108 magicaL fUn in pa.

SOmERSEt, PA— The magic has been abounding the last couple of months in the assembly. The S.Y.M. ended the year with a show for the Boy Scouts . Those performing were Addie Best, Olivia Miller, Branden Benford, Aaron Trulik, and John Bammen. The S.Y.M. also added another young member, Caleb Fetters in November. The adults had a couple of benefit shows late in the year. Performing in those were Gary Weimer, Dody-Jane Svetahor, Louis Paul, Derrick Robey, and Dan Miller. In December a family Christmas party was held with a lot of great snacks. At the Christmas party we had tables set up for members who had magic for sale. This helped clean out items we do not use any longer and help the youth add to their collections.

From left: Glen LaBarre, Jens Henriksen, Ray Roch, Dennis

Hewson, Lon Mandrake and Rod Chow

John McLaughlin arrives at auction bedecked


Assembly News

Adding to the busy meeting was planning our themes for the new year.We are working on some benefit

shows near Valentine’s Day for an Arts Center in our area. It will be advertised as date night magic. We are excited for many new magical happenings for the new year for the S.A.M. and S.Y.M. —Dan MillerThe James Swoger Assy 108 meets at Wheeler Brothers, In-dustrial Park Somerset, Pa. The SYM meets at 6:00pm-7:00pm and SAM 7:00-? Contact Dan Miller [email protected] (814) 733-4978 for more details.

115gReat staRt tO the

neW YeaR

CHARLOttESVILLE, VA—We had a great meeting to kick off the new year. Present at the meeting were David Clauss, George Buckley, Mark Davis, Wes Iseli, Ed Schmitz, Dan Hall, Dan Rowen, Landon Allan, Katinka Allan, and Ashley and Elizabeth Schmitz. The youth meeting began with

the members sharing what they would like to learn during the upcoming year. David then taught the handling of several card forces and the group shared some magic trivia questions. George gave each of the youth group members an English penny and shared some basics of coin magic.The balance of the meeting was

spent sharing ideas, sleights, and effects. Dan Rowen brought in four ball sets for each member to keep and then taught the three ball trick. Ed brought in copies of his Custom Cue Sheets for everyone. He and George both spoke about the importance of keeping a journal or record of your ideas. Wes captured the enthusiasm of the members with his sponge ball routine, which featured a very deceptive vanish. We are looking forward to

our upcoming Charter Presen-

tation and Schindler lecture. —Mark DavisAssembly 115 meets at the Forest Lakes North Pavilion Building. We meet at 7 PM usually the first Friday of the month. For more in-formation, please contact Mark Davis at 434-962-3019. Contact Mak Davis [email protected] (434) 962-3019 for more details.

118 magic in neW hampshiRe

NASHuA, NH— Assembly 118 continues to keep busy performing for local charities and community events. We gave our annual per-formance at the Nashua Library on November 24, 2012 as part of the Nashua Holiday Stroll. We will once again perform for the Nashua Children’s Home in February. And our annual performance to help Merrimack Crimeline has been booked for April 13, 2013.

Assembly 118 meets on the third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m. at the Nashua Church of Christ, 97 Farley Rd., Nashua, NH. Our venue rotates, so contact us first. Contact Robert Granville [email protected] (603) 505 8749 http://sam118.com for more details.

120magicians OR

enteRtaineRs?

CHAmPAIgN, IL— We opened the December meeting with an uncharacteristically specific treasurers report. It was kind of creepy really. Chris Bontjes gave us a review

of The Show Doctor Book by Jeff McBride, which led to discussion of the pause, patter in general, and the philosophy of restaurant magic, which moved on, prompted by Andy Dallas, to a discussion of whether we are magicians or entertainers and what the differ-ence is. For instance, I used to be

a magician, but I was never enter-taining.Andy opened the magic up with

a double change bag, a D’Lite, and a sponge ball prediction. Professor Higgins enthralled us with his amazing Card Box of Death. Paul Mercer showed us his Multiply-ing Bottles and asked for some thoughts regarding his ending. Finally, Chris fed us cookies backed by his lovely wife and, as always, they were yummy and ap-preciated. See ya at the meeting. —Ken BarhamAssembly 120, Andy Dallas Assembly meets the third Wednesday at 7pm, (except Nov. and Dec.) For location call Jim Percy at 217-494-2222 or Ken Barham Sec, 2318 Winchester Dr, Champaign, IL 61821. 217-841-5616 email: [email protected]

127 hOLidaY paRtY

wALLINgFORD, Ct— Our annual January dinner meeting was held on January 15, 2013, at the Playwright Pub in Hamden, Conn. After a delicious dinner, President Jeff Doskos welcomed members and guests and reviewed the accomplishments of our assembly during 2012, especially our annual one-day magic confer-ence, NEMCON.Jeff announced the slate of

officers for coming year: President, Jeff Doskos; Vice-President, Dave Wyskiel; Secretary, Dick Hodes; Treasurer, Mike Gagne. Doskos also presented awards to outgoing Vice-President Chick Kelman and Secretary Jim Martin.President Doskos also presented

awards to Dave Wyskiel for his after-meeting magic and his con-tributions to the assembly. Bill Hoagland also received special recognition for being chairman of NEMCON and arranging our annual dinners.On with the show! We were

treated to a magic performance by Jim Sisti, a well known, prolific magician and writer. He has written several books on magic and mentalism and has appeared on several instructional DVDs. Jim also served as an advisor to Criss Angel’s Mindfreak TV series.Jim presented a routine of mostly

mental and card magic with lots of audience participation. Since he knows many in our group, his program was more intimate and fun. Several effects were “predic-tion” type. They included a poker

hand, book test, “celebrity” pre-diction. Sisti’s card magic varied, from a torn and restored card in a card frame to mentalism effects. Also included in his program was magic with a combination lock – and Bill Hoagland’s wedding ring – and a jumbo card monte with two blank cards and one Ace. At the conclusion: all three cards were Aces! The most dramatic effect was the “spike” challenge. The spike was put in a paper bag and Marlene Clark assisted in mixing the bags. Down went his hand on bags that the audience selected. All was well at the finish; no damage to the spike...or Jim’s hand.

Thanks, Jim, for a great show. And our thanks again to Bill Hoagland for making it all possible. Assembly 127 thanks President Jeff Doskos for his lead-ership, which helped to make 2012 a successful year, as we looking forward to 2013.—Tony MartinAssembly 127 meets at the First United Methodist Church 941 Old Rock Hill Road Walling-ford, Ct. Contact Tony Martin [email protected] (203) 287-0805 www.ctnemcon.com/ for more details.

129 dan haRLan

LectURe

PENSACOLA, FL— Members gathered a week ahead of schedule this month to accommodate the Dan Harlan lecture.President Nate Nickerson opened

the January meeting with just a short announcement telling the group that the themes for the 2013 meetings would be published soon. It was then time for Dan. He defi-nitely thinks outside of the box, as they say today. Dan started off with his Awakening, which is a Profes-sor’s Nightmare routine. Now who would have thought this would be interesting. Well it grabbed ev-eryone’s interest right off the bat. This isn’t your grandpa’s version and not even close to the original. You have to see it to know what I

Dan Miller performing Cardiographic

Ben Pratt terrorizes balloons at the January meeting

Marlene Clark assists Jim Sisti


Assembly News

am talking about. Dan can take an old trick and make it entirely new and better. Nate assisted with Dan’s A Little

Red and Blue, miracles using a red/blue double-backed card. He also showed us a great instantaneous transposition of a borrowed dollar bill. Bryan Drake assisted Dan with Ritual, in which three beads magically release from a necklace. You would not recognize this as the old Grandma’s Necklace (among other names) trick. There were so many other effects Dan presented, all of which you could put into your close-up show and even for platform work.Everyone had a great time and

stocked up on some of Dan’s latest effects. —Beau BroomallBayview Senior Center, 2000 East Lloyd Street, Pensacola, Florida Contact Beau Broomall [email protected] (850) 994-1060 www.gulfcoastmagiciansguild.com for more details.

136 Off tO a gReat staRt!

tuCSON, AZ— President Stewart called the meeting to order and briefly restated his goals for the upcoming year: Magic – Focus our meetings on performing and sharing magic. Unity – Members helping each other become better magicians through education. Might – Building a stronger awareness of magic in the Tucson community through community events and media technology.Mr. Secretary announced that

he has been performing at the VA Hospital on weekends and displayed a certificate of apprecia-tion and a very nice unique lapel pin issued by S.A.M. National’s Veteran’s Program. There is also a certificate and pin waiting for compeer Jay Knapp. Second Vice President Anderson took the floor and gave us an update about

lectures: Hiawatha in March or April, Jon Armstrong, The Ghost from El Paso, Eugene Burger, Paul Romani, Marcos Eddy, Murray Hatfield, and Michael Finney. We’ll keep our fingers crossed and will let you know as the dates become finalized. Special sound effects for this month’s meeting were supplied by Michael DeSchalit.Right after the meeting and

magic show came to a conclusion, we broke up into a couple of small groups to talk and share magic and ideas. Everyone was having a great time, and John Shryock started demonstrating his cups and balls technique and it turned into a mini-workshop as everyone watched and listened intently to everything John said and did. —Gary HussonJohn E. Alexander Assembly #136 meets at 7:00 p.m. on the first Monday of each month at the Fraternal Order of Eagles, 1530 N Stone Ave Tucson, AZ Contact Gary Husson for more details.

138 Beginning a neW YeaR

FORt wORtH, tX— The January 2013 meeting of the Bruce Chadwick Assembly 138 began the year with a very special presentation. To begin, Geoff Grimes, editor of the club news-letter The Flashpaper, spoke about upcoming features in the newsletter. In upcoming months he is going to begin highlighting a member in each issue so that readers can get to know more about members than they might otherwise learn in club meetings. He spoke over several plans to add to an already excellent newslet-ter. Vice President Michael Stein then gave us a highlight of the February meeting, which will be themed “Works in Progress” and then delivered his monthly Skills Set discussion, which this month covered Motivation in Magic – both thematic and specific.After the Skill Set came our

very special presentation for the month of January. Member and well-known magician, inventor and entrepreneur Arthur Emerson, co-founder of Emerson & West, presented a fantastic lecture covering topics such as highlights from his long career, anecdotes throughout the years, as well as practical lecturing on subjects such as how to find and apply magical principles to new tech-nology and upcoming magical

tools on the horizon. Mr. Emerson covered many topics but each felt fully realized; the lecture was all too short. The special program filled out the remainder of the meeting time and adjournment and socializing followed.Assembly 138 meets as the Fort Worth Magicians Club on the first Thursday of each month at 7:00 P.M. at the Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus in downtown Fort Worth. We gather at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro at 5:30 for dinner and so-cializing before the meeting. See www.fortworthmagiciansclub.org for more information.

148 a Winning hOLidaY and

hOLidaY WinneRs

ELmHuRSt, IL— Assembly 148 celebrated the holiday season with its traditional (fairly), lavish party. Members were treated to a spread of shrimp cocktails, canapés, guacamole, wraps, sandwiches, and hot and cold beverages. While the assembled crowd was munching on all this, the committee went down the street to the area’s best pizzeria and brought back piping hot, decidedly delicious pizzas for us to devourer before tackling the dessert table.Usually, as a feature of the party,

we have a members’ night perfor-mance but, because we postponed our annual November contest to make room in the schedule for a fine lecture by Danny Orleans, this month’s show did double duty as a highly entertaining perfor-mance/competition. At most of our meetings, the board encour-ages members to use the oppor-tunity to break in works-in-prog-ress, getting the inevitable bugs out before trying the effects on the general public. However, the contest situation seems to call for tried-and-true material, and the members did not disappoint. Tony Noice, as his last presidential duty, served as emcee.

While all six performers (Rudy Alfano, Don Clancy, Frank Kay, Tony Noice, Fernado Flors, Martin Mercy) did interesting and unusual effects, the judges deter-mined that Martin Mercy was the first place winner, and that Tony and Don had tied for second place. Martin performed a most unusual plumbing feat. Using a miniature bathroom plunger, he lifted up sections of cards, each time locating an Ace. Don once again demonstrated his unique blend of clever magic and zany humor, and Tony did his version of the classic George Sands Rope Trick, incor-porating bits of Tabary, Flip, and Sanders.Although we had the wonderful

Nathan Kranzo lined up as the featured lecturer for our next meeting in January, he had to postpone his appearance for the best possible reason: he was invited to be one of twenty magicians from around the country to do strolling magic at one of the Obama Presi-dential Inaugural Balls in Wash-ington. Now, that’s my idea of a gig! Nathan will now perform his lecture at our June meeting. We look forward to a great 2013 with our new board. —Tony NoiceAssembly 148 meets at the Epiphany Evangelical Lutheran Church (downstairs) every third Monday at 7.30 PM on the corner of Spring Road and Vallette, Elmhurst, IL 60126 Contact Tony Noice [email protected] (630) 993-3740 www.SAM148.com for more details.

150 haRLan’s a hit

FORt myERS, FL— True, pop a DVD in your player an'd you can practically have a top-rate performer like Michael Ammar or Bill Malone right there to teach you those difficult moves. But your chance of getting one to provide you with personal instruc-tion is 100% better when your assembly books a guest lecturer, as Assembly 150 did, luring a record number of members (45+) to see Dan Harlan.Breezing through more than a

dozen effects in a quick two hours, the very professional magician took time to field questions from gaping amateurs and ex-perienced guys alike. And at midpoint, he spent five minutes to help a member having trouble with a variation on Crazy Man’s Handcuffs.In the lecture, though, he didn’t

John Shryock wows with his Cups and Balls routine

Arthur Emerson


Assembly News

strike up the bands at all. He started with the fast and funny Awakening, his version of Profes-sor’s Nightmare. A couple of col-or-changing red/blue-backed card effects followed, with a surprise when the pen used to get a specta-tor’s signature on a card changed color also. A dollar that vanished and reap-

peared rolled tightly inside the pen proved to be no lemon, as did a mis-made bill switch. Harlan showed how to make the mis-made dollar from a sheet of uncut Treasury bills — but noted that each time the trick was performed you’d be out seven bucks.Next came his original two-per-

son mentalism code, SpeakEasy. His “receiver,” Jen Weston, assisted in the demo of a system both said can be learned in five minutes. A wise guy challenged Harlan to tell him the word he had in mind, point-blank, no codes. “You’re on, for $50!” said the performer, “but first whisper the word to the guy next to you so he’ll know if I’m right.” After the whisper, Harlan turned to the recipient and said, “Wanna make a quick $25? Tell me what he said.” And he grabbed the $50 stake to roars of laughter. “I was hustling in a pool hall at thirteen,” he said, “and when someone wants to bet money on something, you’re going to lose every time.” —Don DunnFort Myers Magicians Assn., Assembly 150, meets second Tuesday of each month at Myerlee Manor, Ft. Myers, FL. Contact [email protected] or 239 433-6885. Contact [email protected] for more details.

157 LOts Of BUsYness

BEAVER, PA— The Mystic Magicians of Beaver Valley (Assembly 157) have a busy agenda coming up. Plans for the GPMN Banquet will be at the Fez with prizes, performances, good food, lots of magic, and fun on April 6, 2013. The Riverside High

School Fundraiser will be April 12, 2013. It will have close-up, stage performances, levitation pictures, and other magically fun stuff. Several members will be attending MagiFest in Columbus. There are several other magic-involved lectures, auctions, and shows in the area.The Teach and Learn was on

Slush Powder with Doug Ries and other adding their sugges-tion and uses. Plaques and certifi-cates were presented to the John Morrison Award winners: 3rd Bill Cornelius, 2nd Eric Davis, 1st Don Moody. The Bert Pickard award went to Don Moody for all the extra effort he provides the club. Ray Lucas emceed the perfor-

mances. He also did a card trick with a deck of cards and a red and a blue die. Participant chose one of die, added top and bottom numbers. Ray showed the cards as being blank, except one has the number needed. Don Moody did a coin trick in

which he showed a penny and a quarter, placed them in his hand, and the penny disappeared. He did it again with a dime, penny, and quarter. Tom Chidester explained about words that sound the same but are spelled differently. He showed a card with a hole and one with a spot. He flashed cards several ways; the card always had one or more spots of a hole.Eric Davis had a test for drinking.

He showed a small ball that bounced. The participant could not get ball to bounce. He also showed how to make a coin disappear, a different method from Don’s. Jim Weyand presented a new version of Professor’s Nightmare with three sizes of rope. His verbal speech was different than the usual. Doug Ries did a Russian roulette routine with borrowed glasses. They were unharmed at the end. Bob Mullins showed how to make a poker chip vanish. It has a magnet. He then had someone read the words on a card that were colors. Then try to read the colors of the words. Jim Tate did a one-dollar bill trick. Five ones magically turned into five fives. —Judy SteedThe Mystic Magicians of Beaver Valley, Assembly #157 meet the second Thursday of every month at the Towne Square Restaurant in Beaver, PA, at 7:30p. Contact Judy Steed [email protected] (330) 525-5389 for more details.

161LectURe and hOLidaY

paRtY

SCOtCH PLAINS, NJ— November of 2012 brought a visit from Mike Rubinstein, who crossed the George Washington Bridge to lecture for us. Mike’s specialty, besides being a veteri-narian, is coin magic. He prefers soft coins for their smoothness and quietness. With his easy-going style, Mike showed us some tech-niques such as his version of the retention vanish and something called the slide move. He also found time for a card trick that was also a coin trick and used a chalice. You need to see it to un-derstand this unique bit of magic.Along with David Roth and

Mike Gallo, Dr. Rubinstein has hosted a weekend seminar featuring lectures, presentations, and workshops on coin magic called the New York Coin Magic Seminar. Mike had DVDs of those sessions for sale as well as other nice items, including a rattle purse.He began his lecture with an

engaging piece that defined his personality and told a story while demonstrating his wonderful talent with coins. We were happy to have him visit and urge you to see him when you can.In December our club members

and families met at the Chimney Rock Inn for our holiday party. Vice-President Joe Sagarese put this together as usual and again it was a fun time. There were pizza appetizers and a good selection of food and salad, followed by cake.

Norm Rosen, Greg Ferdinand, and President Doug Thornton (who, by the way, was featured in the December M-U-M) performed several magic effects to the delight of the crowd. Then our headliner, Bill Wisch, took the stage, and wowed everyone. Bill studied with Slydini for a long time and it was a treat to see the legacy continue. Bill engaged the audience and amazed everyone. It was a wonderful night to help end 2012. —Christopher J SmithDavid Copperfield Assembly 161 meets Second Monday

- 6pm dinner/8pm Lecture; The Stage House Restaurant 366 Park Avenue Scotch Plains, NJ 07076. Contact Christopher J Smith [email protected] (908) 850-8765 http://www.sam161.org/ for more details.

172 Off tO a gReat staRt

PORt St. LuCIE, FL— Once again SAM Assembly 172 is off to yet another magical year with an awesome January meeting. After a brief business meeting, we welcomed back Matthew Musgrave, initially as a returning guest and later as the newest member of the Donald E. Leas Assembly. We also welcomed first time guest, Louie DiCocco, and are hoping to welcome him into our midst as well. With introductions out of the

way, Al Chiaverini, Dean Devitt, and Nick Bradley recounted their day at the Toys for Tots benefit held at our home location, Saint Lucie Lanes, back on December 14. With Ed Malinowski and Jay Rene both making appearances, the day was deemed a success and we’re hoping to recruit some new members from this event as well.Danny Eisen then started the

magical portion of our evening off with a pair of mental mysteries that had everyone dazed and confused. Dazed and confused to the extent that I’m not even sure exactly what happened other than it was simply awesome. Past President Paul Hilko followed Danny with a perplexing linking rubber bands routine and finished up producing several crystal boxes of money from an empty paper bag. Wish I could meet expenses like that!Ed Malinowski took a page

out of M-U-M with his own home-made version of Follow the Lady. Ed definitely has a knack for producing some awesome home-grown effects! Ed then conducted an all-out bidding war for a Dancing Cane that was even-tually purchased by Danny Eisen. We’re all looking forward to having Danny perform his newest effect at a future meeting.After the bidding was done,

Jay Rene, as usual, reprised two old classic tricks, once again proving that something old can be something new. His Card Stab and the naming of a card at any position in a shuffled deck were both timeless and flawless. He left everyone wishing they could have seen him perform “back in the

Harlan has a thought—yours!

Dr. Mike Rubinstein


Assembly News

day.”Al Chiaverini closed out the

evening by borrowing a twenty-dollar bill and, after some in-teresting by-play, revealed the serial number on the spectator’s bill. Then, using jumbo cards, Al performed a Three-Card Monte effect that resulted in the produc-tion of a jumbo library card. Nice touch, Al!So...that was January. A great

start to a new year with the Donald E. Lea Assembly 172 of Port Saint Lucie, Florida. —Dean F. DevittAssembly 172 meets the fourth Tuesday of every month but December at 7:00pm at the Saint Lucie Lanes. Contact Dean F. Devitt [email protected] (772) 466-1942 for more details.

174 annUaL instaLLatiOn Of

OfficeRs

AuguStA, mE— Assembly 174 and the MagiKings met January 13, 2013, in Augusta, ME. SAM Regional Vice President, Joseph Caulfield, Esq., aka Lord BlackSword made the trip from Manchester, NH, along with his lovely wife, Kathy Caulfield, aka Lady BlackSword, to join in on the fun and conduct the officer instal-lation ceremony. Thanks, Joseph and Kathy, for doing that! Your presence was greatly appreciated.The 2013 slate of officers carried

over from 2012: Sergeant at Arms – Bryan-Keith Taylor, Scribe – Robert Rand, Treasurer – Karen Seymour, Vice President – Carroll Chapman, Jr., President – Wes Booth. Our Dean remains Alan Drew III.The membership set the 2013

meeting theme agenda as follows: March – color changes, silks, flowers: April – TRI State Auction; May – Give-away magic; June – members build an illusion: July – challenge magic; August – annual picnic, street magic, and busking; September – black art, mirrors, hidden compartments; October – public show; November – mentalism and mystery per-formances; December – gospel magic, elemental magic; January 2014 – promotions, business of show business, publicity.Magic was performed in

abundance after all this! There’s the thumbnail sketch: Bryan – A cute math effect resulting in his correct prediction of a grocery total and item purchased. Alan – Card Warp, and the sharing of a book, The Trap Door. Dennis –

An effect with colored markers in which a spectator colors a coloring book picture randomly, only to have the finished picture exactly match the prediction picture. Scot – A wine bottle “Bamboo-zler” with a cork and two forks in which wine is poured in an impossible manner and a predic-tion effect with cards. Carroll – A nice take on the slip cut force using a small wand to mark the place of the cut. Robert Rand, aka Prof. Foggybottom – A nice Bank Night effect. Wes (yours truly) – Shared a deck of cards made for him by some school kids, a nice homemade paddle effect, new patter for rainbow ropes, and a nice collector’s piece, an Abbott’s silk production box circa 1940. After the meeting all eleven in at-tendance retired to a local restau-rant for more fun and camaraderie. —Wes BoothAssembly 174 meets at the Kennebec Church, 5 Glenview Dr, Augusta Maine Contact Robert Rand [email protected] (207) 557-3868 MagiKings on face book for more details.

181 it’s cOLd in JanUaRY

HIgHtStOwN, NJ— Baby it’s cold outside, and January was the perfect setting for the workshop that was presented by our club president, Stephan Sloan. The workshop and the theme for January was Cold Reading.A cold reading is a description of

an individual, i.e. their personal-ity, characteristics, features, past experiences, and sometimes the future of an individual without the use of standard or formal diagnos-tic procedures. Usually, the reader has never met the individual before and thus he or she is working cold.Steve’s workshop went into great

detail, starting with the basics concepts, the Barnum effect, self serving biases, selective percep-tion, and the base rate fallacy. It was amazing to see how many question this workshop generated.

Magicians are really interested in this topic, and there are not many places that you can go to get infor-mation, except for a workshop like this.The conclusion of the lecture

was when Steve did a cold reading for an attendee, Fred Walker. Although there are dozens of reading techniques, Steve likes to do chiromancy, palm readings. It was fun to watch Steve using many of the techniques he had explained earlier in the evening to produce an interesting and seemingly accurate reading.After a discussion time and some

questioning and answering, it was time to go back out into the cold, but now better informed. —David ZborayAssembly 181 of Hightstown meets the first Thursday of every month, September thru June at the First United Methodist Church, 187 Stockton Street, Hightstown, NJ 08520. Doors open at 7:00PM. Contact Stephan Sloan [email protected] (732) 757-5337 http://www.magicsam181.com/ for more details.

194 annUaL aUctiOn

yONkERS, Ny— It was that time of year that many members look forward, the annual auction, where one’s man’s trash (that is, the stuff in our magic closet that we wonder why we ever bought) becomes another man’s treasure.Kamarr, a guest who heard about

the auction, brought a few items; Ted Lee offered his usual collec-tion of things no one else seems to find; Fr. Brennan continued cleaning out his closet where he found some really fine stuff; and Peter Bernadini offered to part with a few of his own treasures. It is hoped that all who made a purchase went home pleased. Of course, we may see some of those “prizes” reappearing at next year’s auction!One week later the board

gathered for the specific purpose of examining our membership admission procedures to see if they are being adhered to as written. As a result, there were some adjustments made that should increase the member-ship while assuring that some of the rules and bylaws are adhered to more strictly in the future. Next month we will have a lecture on balloon artistry by our own Emilio Velez who has become an outstanding proponent of

this increasingly widespread form of entertainment. His cen-terpieces for our holiday party were nothing short of amazing. —Fr. Dermot BrennanAssembly 194 meets at 7:30 PM every third Wednesday at the Catholic Slovak Club on Lockwood Avenue in Yonkers, NY. Contact Pres. Jom Stranges [email protected] (914) 478-1473 for more details.

200 JanUaRY magic

SEAttLE, wA— The club had a light turnout at January’s meeting, however there was ample opportunity for everyone to present some great magic.Bill Murray presented a work

in progress for the club to offer comments and reviews. Bill told the club about his attempt at becoming an FBI forensic psy-chologist and the three things you could look for to tell if people were lying. Bill had nice funny presentation as he attempted to discover if his spectator Mark was telling the truth about the cards in his hands. The routine was well thought out and the club offered some valuable insight.Mark Paulson performed a

comical version of the bowling ball from pad of paper in which he made a bunch of sponge balls appear instead. Mark has since refined this trick to make it quite funny. Mark also let the group in on how he practices mentalism by correctly remembering a large sequence of numbers the group called out. Larry Dimmitt presented a very

nice routine in which a die was placed under a shot glass as well as a glass top and a number was thought of by a spectator. When the group counted to three and called out the number, the die flipped directly to the number called.J.R. Russell presented some

of his great card work with the Shanghai Shuffle, showing that no matter how many times he shuffled the cards the spectator’s card would be the seventh. J.R. could also guarantee what pile your card would be in by using the guarantee card from a deck of cards J.R.’s magic is always fun to watch.Jim Earnshaw presented a couple

of coin pieces: a version of Winged Silver as well as a Hanging Coins routine. —Jim EarnshawThe Emerald City Wizards Koshek with Stephan Sloan


Assembly News

Assembly 200 meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at a brance of the King County Library. Check website for location. Contact Jim Earnshaw [email protected] (206) 225-6715 www.emeraldcitywizards.org for more details.

266 a neW YeaR

Of magic

LAkELAND, FL— The Lakeland gang greeted the new year with lots of exciting new magic. President Jerry Kardos led us through our business meeting; we discussed our upcoming David Stone lecture and Tom Craven workshop. Guest Dan Stapleton, current Florida Magic Association president, spoke about magic in the state, and the upcoming plans for the Florida State Magic Con-vention.The magic portion of the night

was kicked off by Al D’Alfonso who showed how his movie club membership worked by revealing a freely selected movie. Dan then showed us a triple-header card routine which he also gave a mini-lecture on.Next, Jerry took Beverly Ken-

emuth’s card and made it vanish from the deck. It literally exploded from an envelope that was on the table the whole time. Beverly stayed on stage to demonstrate the quickest vanish of a glass of water ever.Elmo Bennett showed off a card

effect he was working on. On the first go round he was able to determine Beverly’s and Jerry’s card. Then Elmo made Beverly the magician as she read through the instructions and named Elmo’s card.Sensational Sammy next showed

a cut and restored string that he taught to the group. He then showed a couple of props from India that he uses with his kids shows. Ed McGowan took the pasteboards on another amazing

trip when he revealed a card only thought of by guest Dan. Ed then demonstrated a casino-themed trick from the current issue of M-U-M. The group all left vowing to re-examine our magazines more carefully in the future to catch the treasures they hold.2013 looks to be beginning just

like 2012 ended....with plenty of magic from the talented wizards in Lakeland. Come visit us and share in the fun. —Al D’AlfonsoJim Zachary Assembly 266 meets the second Monday of the month at 7PM at the Lakeland I-HOP, I-4 & US 98. Contact Al D’Alfonso [email protected] (321) 4373814 for more details.

274shOW and teLL

night

BOCA RAtON, FL— With sadness we report our president, Arnie Rosen, is seriously ill. He was responsible for our group growing from thirty-five to over ninety members in this past year. Our prayers will be with him. Our emcee for the evening

was professional Al Callus. Al performed a number of comical bits between introducing the acts. Highlight of the evening was an astounding spelling of a card effect performed by new member Joel Lerner. Billy Byron presented one of his original comedy routines. Warren Kaps, who is now a resident in Boca Raton, showed several clever effects with rubber bands. Simon Carmel showed us some of his original effects. Manny Riskin did a “matching cards” effect.Dan Sterling, who has made

substantial contributions to arranging our meeting place, came up with a beautiful card to wallet effect. Jerry Somerdin, who has created many effects for Tannen’s, showed us one of his original creations using a packet of matches. Phil Labush, known for his money magic, showed us

his versatility with a clever card effect. Our former president, Mel Panzer, presented a number of effects using a calendar – most unusual! Marshall Johnson performed Premonition Outdone, a nice prediction effect with two decks of cards. Three new members who performed: Gabe Auerbach performed Eight card delusion; Marvin Freed came up with a very nice Three Card Monte; and Larry Cellan came up with a very clever card location. —Marshall Johnson The Sam Schwartz Assembly 274 meets at the JCC in Boca Raton, FL on the 1st Monday of each month. For information call Marshall Johnson (561) 638-0043. e-mail [email protected]

292 neW cUps and BaLLs

LectURe

gREELEy, CO— During January’s luncheon business meeting, President Lloyd Worley passed around a handsome solid brass Niffen tube. We welcomed three new members: Teagan Brown and his dad Brian, and Scott Oetken. Jim Pope’s son Michael was a welcome guest. Bryan Koch explained the useful-ness of low-melting-point plastic.Members reported on many

recent shows. Ed “Mr. Magic” Hurtubis, Tim “Tim Foolery” Pen-dergast, and Lew Wymisner again played First Night Fort Collins together, and drew 1,100 people. They also reported various solo gigs and charity shows. Derek McKee got the biggest laugh with a young man’s dream booking. He performed for a staff party at the Playboy Mansion!The program was Rich Nakata’s

new lecture on Cups and Balls routines. He is a talkative comedy magician whose apt slogan is “Per-sonality – I’m full of it!” You can find Rich’s impressive credentials in a November 2010 M-U-M cover story. His lecture was designed

to appeal to all levels of skill. He displayed various cups styles from his own collection. Rich discussed cups history and lore, and visual-izing the table top as the floor of a stage. He included misdirec-tion, basic handling, timing, and moves and routines of noted cups workers. He had lots of tips, funny bits of business, and jokes. Rich recommended copying his rugged side table and its shelf servante by ordering its parts from “insTand.com.” Full routines demonstrated

included Jack Bateman’s propri-etary rhyming Rub-A-Dub-Dub, two versions of a simple tradition-al routine (with explanations), and as a climax, his own well-honed signature routine using large cups. Some of the touches in his routine reflect lengthy coaching by British street performer Gary “Gazzo” Osborne. Gazzo also made for Rich the leather gibeciére he wore. In addition, Rich credited critiques by Eugene Burger, Jeff McBride, and Ken Weber. Rich has researched audience reactions to various loads and used the most effective one – four oranges.Some stayed for questions and an

informal workshop. Rich opened with his forthcoming card effect, given a cheeky name by M-U-M’s Lindsay Smith: Four Play. Cup sets for sale ranged from $4 up to $350 (for gorgeous BUMA’s House of Magic sterling silver cups with three BUMA inserts: a vanisher, chop cup, and foo can). Lindsay edited the illustrated lecture notes that detail Rich’s signature Cups and Balls routine. —Ron DuttonThe Dr. Ronald P. Dutton Assembly 292 meets at Kenny’s Steak House, 3502 West 10th Street (corner of 35th Avenue), at 11:00 A.M. (lunch optional), on the second Saturday of the month. Contact Dr. Lloyd Worley [email protected] (970) 356-3002 www.SAM292.com for more details.

Go To:



Broken Wands

Harold F. PuFFJanuary 5, 1916 – december 14, 2011

One of the last surviving magicians to see the Thurston show in its prime, Harold Frederick Puff died on December 14, 2011, in Oxford, Ohio at the age of ninety-five. I regret that this tribute is belated.

For the past twenty years, Harold had been the honorary Dean of Cincinnati Magicians and had loved magic ever since seeing Thurston at the Grand Opera House in Cin-cinnati in 1926. He obtained some of his early magic effects from Johnson Smith and from L.L. Ireland, who he met at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. He studied under Stewart Judah and wrote a column for The Dragon as a member of the International Society of Junior Magicians. He was a member of the I.B.M. and S.A.M. (since 1937) and the Magic Collectors’ Association. He sometimes performed on the “Tricks Old and Seldom Seen” program at Collec-tors’ Weekends. By profession he taught Management at Miami University of Ohio for thirty-eight years, earning his doctorate in 1957. He frequently used magic in his classes and at departmental events. He was a kind and generous man who loved magic all his life. – Michael Claxton

Jack e. yardley

Jack Elliott Yardley of Waco, Texas, passed away Tuesday February 5, 2013 at his home. Services were held at the Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Chapel; Kent Morrison officiated, and Bruce Chadwick conducted the Broken Wand Ceremony.

Jack was born July 29, 1922, in Port Arthur, Texas. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, attended Port Arthur Business

College in 1939, and entered Mechanical Engineering School at Texas A & M University in 1940. When WWII began, Jack enlisted in the Army Reserves. After complet-ing Officers Candidate School in 1943, he was commis-sioned a 2nd Lieutenant and went to train troops at Camp Maxey near Paris, Texas. In due course, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant while attached to Patton’s 3rd Army in the 184th Engineer Combat Battalion.

Leaving the Army, Jack finished his BSME at Texas A & M. He moved to Waco, Texas, in 1953, where he founded Central Engineering. Jack was a long standing member of the Waco, Texas, Founder Lions Club and Ridgewood Country Club. He performed Spanish translation at remote sites for Doctors without Borders, and was an assistant to the Spanish Department at Baylor University. Jack was a licensed pilot, an avid snow skier, and a certified scuba diver. Known in magic circles as “The Amazing Jack

Yardley,” he had a lifelong love for magic and performed countless shows for schools, parties, and private engage-ments. Jack is survived by his wife Lurline Yardley; daughters Jane Russo, Lane Yardley, and Laura Leigh Yardley. – Bruce Chadwick

rickie n. rowray

Rickie N. Rowray, 66, of Cedar Rapids, died February 11, 2013, following a stroke and a short illness. Born deaf on February 16, 1946 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he attended Iowa School for the Deaf in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and graduated from there in 1965. When he was a little boy, he saw a magic perfor-mance in Detroit, Michigan and was awestruck with the

magic show. He did not study magic, however, until he was twenty-one. Rickie was probably the first deaf magician in Iowa.

For over thirty years, he performed magic part-time at birthday parties, women’s club meetings, the Iowa State Fair and other state festivals, sport shows, museums, and other special events throughout the Midwest. Rickie was a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, The Society of American Magicians, the Fellowship of Christian Magicians, the U.S. Deaf Magicians Society, and the Society of World Deaf Magicians. In 1988 he was one of the first four American deaf magicians to partici-pate in the third World Deaf Magicians Festival in Leipzig, East Germany. He enjoyed becoming acquainted with many deaf magicians from different countries. He was an organizer and chairperson of the 5th U.S. – Canada Deaf Magicians Festival in Cedar Rapids in 2001.

His interest in magic and performing led Rickie to learn balloon modeling. For more than forty years he enter-tained his audiences with the art of ballooning around the states of Iowa and Illinois, and in Germany, Russia, and the Ukraine, as well. He had learned this art from videotapes, clowns, and the Fellowship of Christian Magicians conven-tion. His love for magic and balloon artistry combined with his magic tricks and talent brought joy to deaf and hearing children and adults alike. His deafness never limited his imagination and creativity. He strived to do the best in all that he did and brought everyone a smile with his “can do” attitude.

Rickie N. Rowray is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann; his children, Randall Rowray of Des Moines and Robina Criteser of Gulf Shores, Alabama; and his four grandchildren.


Good Cheer ListPlease take a minute to spread a few words of cheer with a card or note to one of our less fortunate members. Send additions, changes, or deletions to: Anthony Antonelly, Chairman, Sick and Convalescent Committee, (215) 820-3192 ext. 1512. [email protected]

David Ball40 Sandy Lodge WayNorthwood, MiddlesexHA6 2AS UK

Roger Barr883 B Leverpool Circle, Manchester, NJ 08759

Tony Corrao100 Daly Blvd. #2804Oceanside, NY 11572

Daniel Cudennec “Dany Trick”225, Stang-ar-Veil-d’an-Traon, Mellac-29300, Quimperle, France

Dan A. Dorsey98 Woodvalley Dr. Fayetteville, GA 30215

Joseph H. (Ben) Grant400 Commonwealth Ave, Unit 9 Warwick, RI 02886

Charlie Gross16745 Gertrude Street, Omaha, NE 60136-3023

Roy Horn c/o Siegfried & Roy1639 N Valley Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89108 Bob King304 Suburban Court, Rochester, NY 14620 Robert D. KniggePO Box 5, Jones Borough, TN 3765

Stanley R. Kramien11205 SW Summerfield Dr. Apt 161Tigard, OR 97224-3391

Richard Laneau4020 55th St. N.St. Petersburg, FL 33709

George Gilbert Lott 1725 Great Hill Rd.Guilford, CT 06437

Frank J. McNaughton, Sr1926 Apple Street, Williamsport, PA 17701

James J. Morrisey24 Grove St.Wayland, MA 01788

Anthony Murphy11 Angel Rd., North Reading, MA 01864

Nahmen NissenPO Box 1856 Colfax, CA 95713-1856

David Oliver41 Norman St.Rockland, MA 02370

Larry Poague34221 West 90 CircleDesota, KS 66108

Jim Relyea241 W. Lakeshore Rockaway, NJ 07866

Harry Riser11755 N. Michigan Rd #313Zionsville, IN 46077

Pat Ryan43 Fairbanks Rd.Churchville, NY 14428

Matt SavinP.O. Box 7693Alhambra, CA 91802-7533

Grant Schofield(The Great Granzini)9303 Quailbrook Ct.Bakersfield, CA 93312

Sybill Simons65 West 95 St. Apt 3ANew York, NY 10025

Hank Strasser46 Bordentown-Chesterfield Rd.Chesterfield, NJ 08515

Mario Susi6 Bristol Rd.W. Peabody, MA 01960

Larry Taverner805 LaPaz Ct.Bakersfield, CA 93312

Jack White4288 Arguello St.San Diego, CA 92103

http://enjoythemystery.com

KeLLaR’s handKeRchief pistOL

In the panoply of magical effects, loading a borrowed hand-kerchief or silk into a pistol and shooting it across stage where it appears in a crystal vase, a nest of boxes, or even a wine bottle, must be one of the most popular. Of course, to accomplish the effect one needs, among other things, a gimmicked firearm. This month we look at the Handkerchief Pistol built and sold by master craftsman Edward Beadle at the turn of the twentieth century.

Beadle’s name never appeared on the cover of a magic catalog; his photograph appeared only once on the cover of the April 1909 Sphinx. In that same issue he was introduced as the New York correspondent of this premier magic magazine of the era. However, his forte in the magic world was not as a writer. He was best known for manufacturing a considerable amount of high-quality magic apparatus for a select number of first-rank professional customers, including Harry Kellar, Adelaide Herrmann, Frederick Eugene Powell, Horace Goldin, Thurston, and many others.

His first connection with magic came when he was a young boy; he appeared on stage as an assistant to Robert Heller when that famous magician opened his Wonder Theater at 585 Broadway, New York City. By 1893, he had turned his attention to mechanics and metalworking and quickly became many pro-fessional magicians’ secret source when it came time to construct

precision-made apparatus. He created the first coin ladder that worked without the aid of assistants and he designed Kellar’s Bells of Colombo, as well as his automaton, Psycho.

For Kellar, Dean of The Society of American Magicians, and one of his earliest clients, Beadle built this nickel-plated Hand-kerchief Pistol. The Mysto Magic Company, in its 1909 catalog, advertised the same model of silk pistol in a twenty-two-inch size at $18.50 – a considerable sum for an accessory or utility device in those days. Beadle supplied the pistols – adapting a real Starr Arms 1856 patented model – to Mysto when orders called for their manufacture. Kellar’s eighteen-inch pistol, shown here, is stamped near the handle “Maker, E. Beadle, New York”; it appears to be almost exactly the same as the Mysto prop.

Draping a silk over the muzzle of the extra long barrel of the gun, Kellar took aim, fired, and in a streak of color the handkerchief disappeared. Using apparatus of this nature was commonplace in magic shows of the period. And, because Kellar demanded the finest apparatus for his show, he went to Beadle to custom-make the prop for him, which must have made it more expensive than the catalog model. What he got was an exquisite example of apparatus of a bygone age, when many magicians, to paraphrase Judson Cole, shot at their tricks to make them work.

Beadle was born in New York City on December 14, 1845; he passed away at his home in Cranford, New Jersey, on July 8, 1927. The pistol was obtained for the Salon de Magie from the widow of Jerry Furman, who had gotten it from the Kellar estate.


By Ken Klosterman

treasures from the salon de magie

By Ken Klosterman

From the world famous Yorkdale Shopping Centre and its easily accessible public transit subway stop, the Den is a short walk down Dufferin Street. From anywhere by car, its ample free parking out front is already a minor miracle in parking-challenged Toronto.

The shop is set back a bit from the street, so you really have to go looking for it. The big Red Lobster building is easily seen from Dufferin Street, but our destination is in the strip plaza just behind it. In its large front window there appears to be the-atrical red curtains pulled aside for a display of some of the marvels to be found for sale within.

You first enter a small foyer. You stop for a moment. On the walls you see photographs and awards that have been presented

to the Den's owner. Right away you realize that this place is the “real deal.”

Suddenly, you enter the big main room, and you are in a magicians’ paradise – truly an Aladdin’s cavern of magic, books, and wonders to be purchased and revealed.

This is the impressive new home of The Browser’s Den of Magic at 3220 Dufferin Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally founded in 1975 by the late Len Cooper and his wife Bernice, it is the city’s oldest brick-and-mortar magic shop.

A couple of years ago, when current owner Jeff Pinsky found out that the lease on his old location at Bathurst and Eglinton was up and that the old plaza was scheduled for redevelopment into condos, he knew he immediately had to

look around for a new address. Wanting to keep centrally located but also insisting upon better customer parking, he did well to establish the Den’s new home so quickly and so successfully at the end of the summer of 2011.

We regular customers all enjoyed the old Den, but its interior design could most chari-tably be described as “cheap and cheerful.” Not that any of us cared. What mattered was the camaraderie of its customers and the humor and positive atmosphere created by Jeff and his employees, all of which is still available in abundance (I am happy to report) at the new location.

The appearance of the new Den is something different and unexpected. For starters, the main room seems huge. This


The “New” Browser’s Den of Magic

in Toronto A guest review by John Pellatt

The new Browser's Den storefront

is a commendable illusion, because its retail square footage is probably almost the same as in the old shop. The massively high ceiling plus an unusually beautiful stone floor create the sense of enormous space: space to breathe in magic; space to stop and look around; space to enjoy the wonderful books over in one corner across the floor from the long main counter. I was im-mediately drawn to it and relieved to discover that the Den has maintained its reputation for housing an outstanding collection of magic books for sale.

Yet despite its perceived size, the new Den still feels extremely comfortable to visit. Colorful framed magic posters cover much of its extensive wall space. And rather than con-

ventionally uniform retail lighting, there is an interplay through-out the shop of light and shadows, drawing your eyes immediately from one magical goody to another on display in the tall glass and wooden cabinets lining almost all of its walls. Looking skywards there is a kind of slanted awning with reddish rooftop tiles all the way around the interior of main room, making you question whether you are actually inside or outside. It’s the kind of visual paradox that seems ideal for a

magic shop.Further inside (and across the floor from the main display

counters) we come to “The Table.” No need to tell fellow magicians what that means! And it’s not just an old card table surrounded by folding metal chairs like at the old Den. The new Den’s table is of light-colored wood in a classic oval shape. It’s surrounded by matching solid wooden chairs with very com-fortable green cushions. Table and chairs sit atop a red Persian style rug; together they create yet another illusion: that of a very intimate space within the main room in which to share tricks and talk with your fellow magic enthusiasts.

The Den’s new laid-back ambience may require an adjust-ment of attitude from some old customers who were more accustomed to its brightly lit, “cheap and cheerful” past.

However, the vast majority immediately respond to it favorably. Looking around and soaking up the mood may also evoke memories of the great glory days of magic long gone and far away. But of course it’s all modern and up to date, too. Many of the latest wonders are for sale only inches away from you under the traditional glass-top display counters. They run side by side in front of one wall from nearly the front of the shop all the way to the very back (and then around a bit). Here’s a hint: You’ll find some sweet deals on discontinued and used effects on sale all the way at the back table.

If you ask, you may also be shown “the future.” In the back is an area designated for children’s parties and private lectures/shows. Even further back is a partially hidden staircase leading up to a top secret room – a Browser’s Loft, if you will. Its future purpose is a complete and utter mystery, appropriately enough.

In the past, the Den has been home for many exciting guest workshops, lectures, and seminars; this will continue through-out 2013 and beyond. Details of current events can be found at their main site, www.browsersden.com. Hosting live special events remains a distinctive brick-and-mortar advantage over purely Internet magic dealers (although online ordering can be done on the Den’s spiffy new website as well).

In person, Jeff, Shawna, Lisa, and Dennis are all as welcoming and hospitable as ever. They are friendly, funny, helpful people who make the new location feel like a home away from home for regulars, for new customers, and for any magician passing through town.

On your next visit to Toronto you should visit the new shop and experience its unique atmosphere. If you believe brick-and-mortar shops are dead, think again. This one has not only been reborn; it has been signifi-cantly enlarged and improved. My guess is that once you’ve visited it, you’ll be back again and again. I know I will.

The author is curator of a tribute to Canada's most beloved children's magician (and S.A.M. member), Johnny Giord-maine (1898-1974) at www.johngiordmaine.com. This review originally appeared in modified form on Canada's Magic (www.canadasmagic.blogspot.ca) - an invaluable resource for news about Canadian magicians.


Old Browser's location at Bathurst & Eglinton

Jeff, Madhi Gilbert, and Bernice Cooper. Madhi Received the Len Cooper Memorial Award in 2012.

The award honors one young, promising magician each year.

Above: Shawna Ross-York, Jeff Pinsky, and Lisa Close

Left: Dennis Gorya


Michael Skinner was a remarkable magician. He loved magic; even though he made his living from magic, he had an amateur’s passion for conjuring that never diminished. In the introduction to Classic Sampler, Allan Okawa paints a beautiful portrait of Skinner the man and Skinner the magician:

“Michael Skinner is a quiet, unassuming gentleman who lives a somewhat private life. As a guest at his home on many occasions while in Las Vegas, I’ve come to realize that here is an artist who lives and breathes magic twenty-four hours a day. It is his life, and the magical influence is everywhere, including his kitchen. In the cabinets and drawers where people would normally keep their silverware and utensils, there is only magic. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if he kept his cases of cards in that unused oven of his. Being a practical man, he once said to me that a kitchen is quite unnecessary for him as he always dines out. The only item that is used, somewhat, is a coffee maker. And I do suspect that the refrigerator is being used to keep his stock of flash paper and, perhaps, a Weller Egg.

“When you witness a performance by Michael Skinner, you’ll soon realize that he cares about each and every detail regarding the effect that is being presented. Woven throughout his routines are interesting stories that are essential to great magic. These are quite believable and truly capture the imagination of the audience. His style is slow and deliberate; he executes his sleights flaw-lessly, handles props elegantly, takes no chances, and dresses im-maculately. He’s blessed with a deep resonant voice and is at all times a gentleman. These valuable assets combined with invisible sleight of hand produce magic of the highest order. His talents and persona remind me so much of the late, great Nate Leipzig. There is no doubt in my mind that Michael Skinner is the consummate artist of intimate magic.”

Although Classic Sampler contains very commercial and practical magic, I think its greatest value lies in the nuggets of useful tips and suggestions that can be found in each routine. Every effect in Michael’s repertoire was worked out to the last detail; understanding the “why” of these details will improve your magic, even if you don’t do Michael’s routines.

I saw Michael perform the two effects in this month’s Ebook Nook on many occasions. They are valuable seemingly impromptu routines that play great when you are seated at a table in a restau-rant. Don’t pass them by.

My thanks to L&L Publishing for allowing these excerpts to appear in M-U-M. —Michael Close

tORn and RestORed sOda stRaW WRappeR

This is a “torn and restored” effect that I have featured in my work for quite some time; the method is based on the Quadruple Torn and Restored Cigarette Paper, which can be found in my book, Michael Skinner’s Intimate Magic.

A wrapped straw is shown. The package is opened and the straw is discarded. The wrapper is now very openly torn up into small pieces and rolled up into a small ball. When the ball is unrolled, it is seen that the wrapper is fully restored.

Breaking this routine down to its basics, it is a version of Nate Leipzig’s cigarette-paper tear, Tear-Up with a Twist, which can be found in the original Stars of Magic and in Dai Vernon’s Tribute to Nate Leipzig. Of course, there are differences in handling, and the built-in steal of the duplicate wrapper is interesting.

Some slight preparation is required. First of all, take the wrapped straw and carefully remove the straw from the wrapper by pushing the straw out of one end so that the wrapper is not torn. Throw the straw away. Now, flatten out the wrapper by pulling it firmly through the fingers. This flattens out the wrapper and removes most of the wrinkles. Now take a second wrapped straw and again, carefully, poke the straw out one end of the wrapper, but this time do not remove it all the way, but only about an inch or so.

At this time, take the empty wrapper and, starting at one end of it, accordion-pleat it. These pleats should be very small, almost tiny, in fact. These pleats should be no wider than an eighth of an inch. Pleat the entire wrapper clear down to the other end. Now, twist this tiny bundle into a torpedo-shaped pellet.

Take the accordion-pleated pellet and insert it for about half its length into the open end of the partially wrapped straw (See Photo 1). Work the wrapper back up over the end of the straw so that the torpedo-shaped bundle is mostly covered. Even if the duplicate pellet shows a little bit, it won’t matter because it is the same color as the wrapper, and they blend together.

Before the performance, place the prepared straw in the inside jacket pocket, or in the outside shirt pocket if no jacket is worn. If the straw is carried in an outside pocket, it should be closed-end up, so that the open end is not noticed.

When ready to perform, remove the wrapped straw and place it onto the table with the prepared end to the right. Show both

EBOOK NOOK

Excerpt From: Classic SamplerWritten By: Michael SkinnerDescription: Ebook, 118 pagesAvailable From: www.llepub.com

Photo 1


hands empty and say, “Notice, I have no glue or preparation of any kind on my hands.” Do not say, “See, my hands are empty.”The audience can see this without it being said. Spread the fingers wide, starfish fashion, and show both sides front and back.

Pick up the straw at the left end between the left thumb and first two fingers. Grasp the other end in the right hand. Push the wrapper down about an inch with the right hand so that the pellet can be nipped by the right fingers. The left hand now pulls the wrapper completely off as the right hand holds onto the straw. The duplicate wrapper has now been loaded into the empty right hand without arousing any suspicion.

Retain the wrapper in the left hand and place the straw aside on the table, off to the right. Flatten the wrapper out between both hands. The pellet is nipped between the forefinger and middle finger of the right hand (Photo 2).

The technique that is used to tear and restore the wrapper is basically the same as that used in Leipzig’s Tear-up with a Twist. Hold the straw wrapper between the thumbs and fingers of both hands, with the fingers on the side of the wrapper toward the audience and pointing down to the table.

Tear the wrapper in half. Show the pieces apart. Make a gesture with the left-hand piece and say, “The left side.” Make a similar gesture with the right-hand piece and say, “The right side.” Put the pieces together and tear them a second time, repeating the gestures and saying, “Left side, right side.” Put the pieces together and repeat the procedure a third time. In all, the wrapper is tom three times.

Hold the pieces together, pause for a second, and say, “By the way, did you hear about the guy who lost his left side? He’s all right now.” This gets a smile or a groan. It always gets some reaction. I don’t care which reaction it gets, because it gives me the necessary time to roll up the tom pieces and to add the torpedo pellet to the bottom of them, between the right thumb and first two fingers.

The Leipzig switch of the two pellets is now performed. The two pellets are held together between the right thumb and first two fingers with the torn pieces above the un-torn piece. The left thumb and forefinger come over to the pellets. The right fingers rotate slightly counter-clockwise as the left fingers rotate clockwise. This undetectably turns the entire bundle over, bringing the whole wrapper to the top (Photos 3 and 4).

Squeeze the pieces together and clip the torn ones between the first two fingers of the right hand. Slowly, with the left thumb and first two fingers, pull the accordion-pleated wrapper open (Photo 5). This always gets quite a gasp of surprise as it opens restored. Stretch the wrapper out between both hands.

Smooth out the wrapper between both hands and take it at one end between the left thumb and forefinger. The right hand now picks up the straw that was previously set aside. Return it to the pocket that it was originally taken from, and say, “I’ll use this later.” At the same time, the torn pieces are dumped into the pocket. Then, of course, I use the straw later, either as the stick for the Ring on Stick routine, or as the wand in an impromptu cups and balls routine using coffee cups and either olives or cherries for the balls.

the tRash cOmpactOR

This is my handling of R. C. Buff’s Paper Napkin Vanish, which appears in J.G. Thompson Jr.’s book My Best on page 157. This is a fine impromptu stunt for children and adults.

While seated at a table, open a cocktail napkin and hold it as in Photo 1. Now run your right hand down over its length several times, stroking it as you would a silk handkerchief. Now make the following remarks: “It’s wonderful the modern kitchen appli-ances we have these days to make our homes more comfortable. We have microwave ovens, electric can openers, and efficient

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5


dishwashers. But there is also a kitchen appliance that not everyone has in their home. Do you know what that is? A trash compactor! I carry my own trash compactor with me.”

As you are reciting these words, grip tightly with your left thumb and forefinger, at the same time closing middle, third, and little fingers into your palm. Push forward with the thumb and forefinger. This action will tear the napkin at the thumb and fore-finger (Photo 2).

Now, with the right hand, start at the bottom and roll up the napkin in a ball toward the left hand. Crumble the napkin into a tight little ball in the left hand and open the left fingers to show (Photo 3). Notice that your left thumb hides the break in the napkin.

Now palm the ball in the right hand as you close your left fingers into a cupped fist, with the little piece still extending at the top of your left thumb and forefinger (Photo 4). Bring your right hand to the edge of the table and lap the large ball. Now roll the tiny piece in your left hand into a tiny pellet and work it down into

the palm of your left hand. Hold your open right hand over your left and slowly open your left hand wide to show the “compacted napkin” (Photo 5).

Pick up the pellet with your right first two fingers and thumb to show it around. Now pretend to place the pellet back into your left hand; retain the pellet in your right hand. Bring your right hand to the table edge and lap the pellet as you extend your left hand over the center of the table. Bring your hands together, one above the other and “pour” the invisible pellet from hand to hand. Slowly open both hands as you continue the “pouring” process. Show the napkin completely vanished as you say, “I would be handy to have around the house. I’d eat you out of house and home and clean up my own mess.”

I give Jack Chanin credit for this, even though the trash compactor idea, presentation, and handling are mine. I saw Jack perform the R.C. Buff version back in the early Sixties.

EBOOK NOOK

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photo 8

Photo 10

Photo 9

http://www.joemogar.com


http://www.llepub.com

https://twitter.com/sammumnews

http://www.bobsolarimagic.com

http://www.tmyers.com

pRemise tO peRfORmance

When author Stephen King was asked his opinion about film director Stanley Kubrick’s popular adaptation of his novel The Shining, King responded: “I’d admired Kubrick for a long time and had great ex-pectations for the project, but I was deeply disappointed in the end result...Kubrick just couldn’t grasp the sheer inhuman evil of the Overlook Hotel. So he looked, instead, for evil in the characters and made the film into a domestic tragedy with only vaguely supernatural overtones. That was the basic flaw: because he couldn’t believe, he couldn’t make the film believable to others.”

King’s critique stunned reporters, but it obliquely answered a problem assailing a lot of magicians. Believability is the soul of effective conjuring. Imagine the power your next demonstration would have if your guests were surprised and baffled – but they also walked away wondering: can magic be real? If this is your goal, then you must create, write, and be able to deliver a premise that you can believably convey first to yourself and then to your guests. If you don’t believe the message (no matter how outrageous), why should anyone else buy into it?

Weaving believability into your conjuring feats is a task that requires attention to detail. There’s work involved, but the reward is worth it. Offering a relevant premise to explain a prop you are using or an idea you are proposing will make a tangible difference in the minds of your guests during and after every perfor-mance. Once acquired, the premise then becomes the springboard into the script itself.

The purpose of this column is to provide the boards and nails of act con-struction supported by practical examples. So let us tackle the process of creating an

effect, choosing a premise, and writing a relevant script until all that is left is the rehearsal and performance. Ready?

Ninety-five percent of card magic can be accurately summed up in the statement, “Pick a card and I will find it.” The latter half of that statement is where the enter-tainment lies. There are unlimited ways to reveal that card. It is within those revela-tions a good performer finds opportunities to introduce drama, conflict, tension, and emotion.

First, let’s assume you want the guest to do more than just pick a card, put it back, and wait to see what happens. If you hope to add any of the theatrical elements mentioned above, then the guest’s involve-ment should be as hands-on as possible. A degree of intimacy between yourself and the guest would be ideal – and this emotion can be achieved through dialogue. When performers tediously describe their actions in detail, people will be polite listeners at best. However, when a performer engages a guest in genuine dialogue, they will naturally shift their attention and listen on a far deeper level.

Now is a good time to remember Nate Leipzig’s advice: “People enjoy being fooled by a gentleman.” Polite conversa-tion requires one to be focused, with as few distractions as possible. In this presen-tation, success will hinge upon your ability to learn the identity of a chosen card. If you have any lack of confidence in your sleight-of-hand skills, the anxiety will reveal itself as a subtle “tell” during the performance. So the decision is made to remain relaxed by side-stepping the card-control issues completely; we’ll use a simple card force instead.

There are hundreds of card forces to choose from, but the Cross Cut force leaps to mind. The handling is simple, requires little attention, involves the guest person-ally, and is psychologically deceptive – so much so that many professionals regard the Cross Cut force as the most underrated method in the industry.

We now have several goals in mind [participation, dialogue, intimacy,

simplicity] but have yet to come up with a premise. In this case, the goals themselves offer a promising solution. How does one create onstage intimacy while revealing a playing card? That answer might be found by asking yet another question: Is there anything more intimate than looking directly into someone’s eyes? So the premise for our drama with playing cards becomes: “The eyes tell me what I want to know.”

How then does one use this premise to write a script? Where do you begin? A few minutes thought will bring to mind bits of common folklore about the eyes: “The eyes are the windows to the soul” and “Just look in their eyes to know if they’re telling the truth.” It’s worth recalling these two facts: professional poker players hide their eyes during games to improve their odds of winning; also, the flash of a bright light lingers in everyone’s eyes.

To create the script, the facts and folklore are written down and then con-sidered as you imagine yourself going through the motions of performing the effect. Here is where much of the trial and error begins. Ask yourself “why” a lot, es-pecially when justifying your movements or statements. Every time you have a plausible idea or thought, write it down! Even if it is obviously ridiculous or too weird, write it down. You can always toss them later – but often those off-beat ideas come to the rescue when you’ve hit a dead end and are searching for a new direction.

Initially, your script shall cover every aspect of your performance. This includes the introduction, the proposal, prop handling instructions, movement justifica-tions, the finale, and the closing remarks. Once you have the first draft of your script complete, the editing begins. According to William Shakespeare, brevity is the soul of wit; it is also the heart of effective commu-nication. Be ruthless. Hunt for repetition and the obvious. Eliminate the unneces-sary. It is difficult to part ways with our words, especially after working so hard to create them. However, our goal is to avoid a performance that is weakened by a long-


The High Roadscript writing, character

development, and act construction for the modern conjuror

By Mick Ayres

winded conjurer.After much thought, scripting, and

editing, the following presentation is now offered as a working example for you to study, consider, and, perhaps, employ.

fOR YOUR eYes OnLY

It is assumed you have been introduced and the guests are aware of your interest in conjuring. Pleasantly say, “I want to demonstrate something that has a logical explanation. Some people say it feels like magic, but I would like another opinion. Would you help me, Ma’am?” Hand her a deck of cards. “Please give these cards a quick mix.” While she is doing so, say, “There are two questions magicians get asked all the time: ‘How did you do that?’ and ‘Where do your ideas come from?’ This time, instead of dodging those questions, I’m going to break the cardinal rules of conjuring and answer both of them.”

Smile and extend your hand palm up toward your guest. She will end the shuffle and hand the cards back to you. In this action – and without a word – you have es-tablished an unspoken level of cooperation between you and the guest.

You will need to know the bottom card of the deck. Often, during the mixing, a guest will unknowingly flash the bottom card to an observant conjurer. If so, then note the card and count your blessings. However, more often than not the informa-tion must be gained purposely. The cho-reography is important. As you place the deck face down on your open palm, dis-creetly glimpse the bottom card of the deck while saying, “Please remove a group of cards – about half – and place them on the table.” Once she has done so, place the remaining portion of the deck crossways upon the tabled portion.

Now is the time for dialogue. Relax, look at your guest and say, “Before you do anything else, let me ask a question: Did you know the eye retains an image of what it sees when the brain is concen-trating on the object in question at the moment of observation – or do you have any idea of what I just said?” The delivery of this question is important. Take a deep breath and ask the first half of the question rapidly; it gets a bit of a laugh because your guest can almost follow you but isn’t quite sure if she understood everything. After the briefest pause, ask the last phrase calmly and it becomes a humorous lifeline that she grasps with a bit of relief. She will

smile and answer, “Not really.”Explain by saying, “As humans, we

look at things all the time – but we’re really not concentrating. When our brain concentrates on what we see, a tiny image is implanted upon the darkest part of our eye…what is that called? The retina? The pupil? I can’t remember. It fades in less than a minute. You know – the same way you can still see a flash of light long after the camera has taken your picture, right? Anyway, there was a show on one of those learning channels a month ago about forensic scientists who hope this can help detectives solve cases. After all, a crime victim is definitely concentrating on what’s about to happen, isn’t he? You and I will demonstrate whether this is possible with the deck you have shuffled and cut.”

If you think about it, the above script accomplishes several of our goals. You have offered a premise that sounds like it could be true, plus you have provided two practical examples that give your premise relevance. Furthermore, these practical examples promote dialogue. In one, you seem to want guidance for an anatomical term in the human eye; second, the “lingering flash of light” example is something everyone has experienced at one time or another. No matter what happens from this point, you have already connected on a personal level with your guest.

Put your hand over the deck and look away from the guest. Lift the upper portion and hold it up facing the guest so she can easily see the bottom card (this is the same one you glimpsed earlier). Say, “I’ll keep my head turned away while you look at this card you cut to. Now, don’t just look at it; we need you to really concentrate on it. Tell me when you have it.” When she affirms this, do not turn your head back yet. Instead, replace the cards back on top of the tabled portion and square the deck completely using just one hand. Do this by feel alone without looking. Say, “I won’t touch the cards again. May I turn around now?” When she gives permission, turn around and face her again.

At this point, do not just blurt out the name of her card. If the eyes were really able to hold an image you’d have to squint to see it, wouldn’t you? So, squint. Get serious. Ask her to tilt her head into the better light if you must. Lean forward to invade her personal space – not much, just a bit. When she realizes you aren’t kidding, she may laugh nervously and look

anywhere else but at you. Chastise her gently and say, “Keep focused; I almost have it.”

Build up the revelation slowly. For example, if the forced card is a Seven of Hearts you would say, “It’s definitely a red card. Are those Hearts I see? Yep, I believe they are. Don’t move your eyes – it’s starting to fade already.” Move your finger back and forth in front of her face as if counting something. “Aw, shoot, it’s gone. I couldn’t tell if there was a pip in the middle or not. So, your card is either the Six or the Seven of Hearts. Which one is it?” She will confirm it as the Seven of Hearts.

Smile and say, “Good – it worked then! I know there’s a logical explanation, but it does feel like magic, doesn’t it? Thank you.” The demonstration is over. However, the script and the theatrical choreography ensure the moment you have created will linger for a long time.

Consider the similarity between the first and last sentences of the presentation. Like a pair of bookends, the statement at the end gently reminds the guest of your opening remarks and, subconsciously, ev-erything that happened in between. This is a ploy used often in theatrical productions.

By stating a goal and a believable premise up front – and then supporting it with relevant examples – we have drawn the guest into a place where disbelief can be more easily suspended. Finally, by getting up close and personal during the revelation process, we have added theat-rical elements of tension and conflict into our little drama.

Without a doubt, there is plenty of room left in this proposed script for personaliza-tion and editing. No script written for one will be suitable for all – but it can be just the springboard you need if you let it. If it matters, the strength of this presentation was revealed to me two days after a per-formance, when a resort guest laughed and shared how he caught his wife in front of a mirror with a deck of cards in her hand while staring hard into her own eyes.

Remember, our goal was to take the most basic plot in all of conjuring (pick a card and I’ll find it) and write a script that provided opportunities for participation, dialogue, and intimacy, thus turning the trick into a strong and baffling presenta-tion – and we kept the method simple.

The only thing left now is the rehearsal and performance. That part is up to you.

Have fun.



The Nielsen GalleryAnnie Abbott - Casino de Paris: Dimensions: 2-sheet – 38.5” x 58” Lithographer: F. Appel, Paris • Date: Circa 1892 • Nielsen Rating: Unique

annie abbott: the Little georgia magnet

If you find you cannot lift this magazine off the table or even turn the next page without wondering whether it is held down by an unseen power, then the spirit of Annie Abbott, the “Georgia Magnet” must be at work. And, if the saying is true that it’s hard to hold a good woman down, then our subject this month is appar-ently also difficult to lift up.

In the late 1880s a talented performer named Lulu Hurst, “The Georgia Wonder,” appeared on the stage demonstrating feats of strength and resistance. Chairs, canes, and walking sticks held by volunteers from the audience seemed to be gripped by an invisible power that prevented even the strongest men from moving them or lifting them once Hurst had touched them lightly.

In one part of her act, a gentleman from the audience held a cane horizontally in his hands. When Hurst placed her hands on the cane he could no longer keep it steady. Eventually he was pulled about the stage by this unseen power and even thrown to the floor. This started a wave of so-called “magnet” performers.

The original was Dixie Annie Jarratt, who after the death of her husband, Charles N. Haygood in 1886, supported herself and her children under the name Annie Abbott, “The Georgia Magnet.” We learn from Abbott’s billing that she:

• Holds a chair in her open hands and members of the committee try in vain to push or pull it through them.

• Stands erect on one or two heels (not even her entire foot) holding a billiard cue in her open hands. Each member of the committee tries (by taking hold of the cue) to push her from her balance. They try in twos, threes, and fours.

• Lifts two, three, and then five men piled up on one chair.

• Holds a tumbler between her hands when a muffled, vibrant sound can be distinctly heard. This noise may also be elicited by laying the glass against any part of her body in any manner.

When she visited England in 1891, she appeared at the Alhambra Theatre and caused an absolute sensation. The famous magician John Nevil Maskelyne denounced her at the time, but noted that she “…set the Thames on fire,” and that, “London was a blaze of excitement.” She then toured Europe and Russia for nearly two years, appearing before royalty. Upon her return from Russia in 1893 her manager (aka “Mr. Abbott”) stole Dixie’s act and went on the road with another woman, Matilda Tatro, who also toured as Annie Abbott until 1910. Despite that betrayal,

Dixie also continued to perform in the U.S. while Tatro appeared in India, Japan, Australia, and elsewhere abroad.

Dixie’s fantastic success was the result of her apparent ability to resist being lifted from the floor through male strength, thereby defying the laws of gravity and physics. She accomplished this by cleverly applying leverage and controlling the center of gravity, accompanied by the power of suggestion and her manager’s presence on stage. Her performances were also more impressive than Hurst’s because of Abbott’s diminutive size – a slight one hundred pounds.

Even with occasional exposure of her methods in newspa-pers, Abbott’s popularity grew. There were many imitators of her magnetic act besides Tatro, including Carrie Arnold, Mattie Lee Price, Anna Eva Fay, and Mrs. Walford Bodie.

The poster featured this month was used during Abbott’s appearances in France around 1891-92. Vignettes of her act are displayed across the poster. Dixie died November 21, 1915, and is buried in Memory Hill Cemetery in Milledgeville, Georgia, her hometown. Tatro died January 31, 1955 and is buried in Ballston Spa Village Cemetery in Saratoga County, New York. Their manager, Richard Abbey, died May 8, 1927. Regardless of who imitated whom, for many decades audiences were drawn to these magnetic personalities. —Tom Ewing

References – “Annie Abbott ‘The Little George Magnet’ and the True Story of Dixie Haygood” by Susan J. and Hugh T. Harrington; Magic: A Pictorial History of Conjurers in the Theater; and the Conjuring Arts Research Center.


The Nielsen Gallery


n the history of magic, there have been only a few two-person acts in which both partners were

able to establish clearly defined characters during a twelve-minute act. Such is the case of Johnny and Pam Thompson, whose characters – the pompous and mostly oblivious magician (who for some reason performs exquisite magic) and his bored and slightly wacky assistant – have achieved iconic status. Johnny tends to get most of the press in magic magazines, and rightly so; he is one of magic’s living treasures. But the success of Tomsoni & Co. is in no small part due to Pam’s genius, acting skills, and (as you’ll read in a moment) fearlessness on stage.

In addition to creating a great magic act, Johnny and Pam are two of the nicest people I have ever met. When we lived in Las Vegas, Lisa, Ava, and I spent many enjoyable evenings around their dinner table, chatting about magic, kvetching about life, the universe, and everything, and laughing until our sides hurt.

Although other magazine articles on the Thompsons have included information on Pam, I thought it was time that she got the spotlight all to herself. She is smart, funny, articulate, and (as evidenced by the large bag containing two Chihuahuas that she carries everywhere) one of magic’s genuine characters. We spoke via Skype. – Michael Close

Michael: Let’s start at the beginning.Pam: I was born Pamela Everest in 1936 in Paterson, New

Jersey, in a hospital. My mother was a nurse there. My father was an electrical engineer for the Okonite Cable Company, which was one of the first companies to manufacture insulation for electri-cal wire and cable. (Samuel F.B. Morse and Thomas Edison were early customers.) My father was British; he came over specifically to work for Okonite. He met my mother in the states. I have a sister who is five years younger than I am. I think I took after my father much more than my mother.

M: What kinds of things interested you when you were young?P: I did anything to get attention. I was tall and wiry so I got

chosen for games a lot. I played basketball. My mother loved animals, so I was always around animals. I spent a lot of time horseback riding. I used to ride at a stable. A woman there liked my style and asked me to ride her two horses. I won my first blue ribbon and did my first jumping with her horse. At the time I really didn’t think about anything else but horseback riding.

There was one other thing I gained from hanging around the

stables: I developed the filthiest mouth in the world. The guys who worked there weren’t the British aristocracy, you know.

At this point in time I wasn’t involved in any theatrical endeavors. My father was British, and he had no tolerance for show business and didn’t approve of any kind of acting or perfor-mance. He wanted me to go into law or be a doctor. I didn’t really know that I could perform until my first year in private school.

A Conversation with Michael Close

Excep t ion a l ly F in e Com pa n yPa m T hom pson


M: Why a private school?

P: My father felt that I wasn’t able to concentrate on my school work, so he sent me to the Ellis Country School for Girls, in Penn-sylvania. This was a private high school. I was sent there because I couldn’t concentrate on my schoolwork.

But I did discover acting there. I did my first leading role there.I left the Ellis school before my senior year. A few of us drove

off campus and met some boys; we got caught having coffee in a coffee shop. Everybody was expelled except me, because I was a paying student. The others were attending gratis and they got expelled. I didn’t think that was fair, so I quit.

I did my senior year in New York State, at a school called Bri-arcliff Manor.

M: After high school what did you do?P: I went to college, but that was another joke. For one reason

or another, schooling was not my thing. I love to learn, but the reg-imentation of the school curriculum didn’t appeal to me. I didn’t care for the group activities.

I went to college at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massa-chusetts. My mother sent me to that school specifically because it was across the street from the Harvard Law School dorm. She figured that if the school thing didn’t work out, maybe I could nab a cute lawyer. However, I came home with an MIT engineer, much to mother’s horror. She thought engineers were boring, and I guess she knew, because she was married to one.

I got bounced from that school because I fixed up all the girls in my sorority (most of whom were Jewish) with boys in a Catholic fraternity that an MIT engineer friend of mine (who would soon become my husband) belonged to.

So, instead of graduating from college, I married the MIT engineer, Peter Hayunga. We lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and I would take a bus into New York City to a job I had working for a law firm: Milbank, Tweed, Hope & Hadley. It took me a month to remember the names. I used to pick up the phone and say, “This is...umm...Milbank...umm...Tweed...umm.” I finally just wrote it down. And then I finally committed it to memory, because, as you can see, a hundred years later and I can still remember the name of it. I wasn’t there very long, though.

During this time I thought I would expand my performing opportunities by taking singing lessons. I started studying with Helen Jepson, who had sung with the New York Metropolitan Opera. One day I walked in and she said, “I’m so sorry. I love my little pixie, and I know she’ll be in show business some day. But

I also know she’ll never be an opera singer. And frankly, I can’t stand to hear ‘Un Bel Di’ sung off key one more time.” And that was the end of my opera training.

M: But you did find some work as model. How did that come about?

P: I had a couple of friends who were in that field. They told me how you go around to the photographers and get what are called “test shots.” That glamour shot of me was a test shot. I also did an ad for Ginger Ale, which is the photo of me standing on some rocks in a stream. That was a really good gig. I got several modeling jobs for advertisements. I was using the name Pam Hayes, because Hayunga was not a great show business name.

My son Kevin was born in 1958. I stayed with Peter for four years. After we divorced, I went to New York with my son. I got an apartment and went to work. Besides the modeling, I also worked at the Gaslight Club, which was like a more sophisticated Playboy Club. I had no breasts then, so I didn’t have to worry about being solicited, which is what happened to a lot of the other girls. I worked in the speakeasy part of the club. I served drinks and danced in the show. When I say danced, I mean regular dances, nothing fancy.

Kevin was in school. I found a Catholic church at the end of my street. (I was married in the Catholic church; I had to convert.) So I took Kevin there. They allowed Kevin to be in that school, and it was very convenient. If I had a modeling job I could drop him off, go to work, and pick him up on my way home. He was starting to work, too. He was so cute; he was doing some modeling jobs as well.

I also met a man named Jack at a trade show I was working. We had a whirlwind love affair and got married. But it was a mistake; that marriage only lasted three months.

M: And around this time you were studying acting in New York.

P: That’s right. I studied with Lee Strasberg, the director of the Actors Studio. I got a few acting gigs, but nothing really steady until some years later when I began doing summer stock.

I did have one interesting job during this period: I worked for Mark Wilson. It was in 1964, during the New York World’s Fair. Mark had designed an exhibit called “The Hall of Magic” for the General Cigar Company. The show was very popular; there were twenty-four shows a day on weekdays and thirty shows a day on the weekends, with two shifts of performers each day. Each shift had a magician and two female assistants. When I went to audition

Left: Pam's first horse competition Right: Pam's first play at private school


for the show, Mark said, “I can’t use you; you’re too tall.” I said, “If I can get into this box, will you hire me?” He said yes. So I got into his thin-model Sawing-in-Half box to show him I could do it. I’m double-jointed and was able to arrange my knees so I would fit. After the show was up and running, Mark left. I actually worked with Kaymar (who became famous on the Letterman Show as the discount magician). Because the sawing illusion was really tough on my knees, I eventually switched roles with another girl. I popped out of a large prop cigar box; because I was tall, it really looked amazing.

So, in New York I was working but struggling. I needed to be around Kevin. I gave up the dancing thing and just lived off the modeling money. But it was difficult.

I decided I better get married again. I met Arthur, who was husband number three. He was from Chicago and was visiting New York for some reason. I met him playing bridge. I guess he figured that if I could play bridge, he should marry me, even if I was a shikse.

M: So now we get to religion number two.P: We didn’t get married in a synagogue, but I was Jewish for four years. It was

fascinating. Arthur was very intelligent and loved to share his knowledge; he loved to share the Jewish faith, including how to make liver and onions.

Clockwise from top left: Pam with son her son Kevin, glamour test shot,

Ginger Ale ad, Pam's 1964 promo shot, Bille and Pam 1973 promo

shot, Pam and Kevin in Photo Dealer Magazine


Kevin and I moved to Chicago with Arthur. That marriage lasted four years.

M: How did you meet Johnny?P: We met in 1967 at a convention Hank Moorehouse had

organized in Palos Park, Illinois. I was dating a magician named Ron Pascu, who used the stage name Ronald George. Kevin had seen him doing some magic and wanted to be a magician, so Kevin and I went to Hank’s convention. Johnny was at that con-vention with Norm Nielsen. I found out later that when Johnny saw me, he said to Norm, “That’s the woman I should have married.” Johnny and I kept running into each other after that. I was doing a lot of trade show work. I became one of Tommy Tucker’s “Live Wire Girls.” One of the other girls and I jumped ship and worked as “Billie & Pam.”

I had also started to get work in summer stock theater produc-tions. I was in The Importance of Being Ernest and other plays, including Beginner’s Luck with Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heroes fame. Johnny knew Bob from Bob’s days as a disc jockey. We ran into each other again when Johnny came to see Beginner’s Luck.

M: Did you work with Johnny during that time?P: Johnny was hired to do a show for the Amalgamated Meat

Cutters, and the booker sent over some models to choose from; I was one of them. Johnny pointed to me and said, “I want her.” So I worked with him. At the time, Johnny had a very expensive mohair tuxedo; I thought it was a cheap Rayon tuxedo that had gotten shiny with age. Here I was, I thought, working with a magician who couldn’t afford a decent set of tails.

We did the gig. My part was very straightforward; just carry props on and off. The guy who was on before us walked out on stage, in a tuxedo, cut a rib roast, and got a standing ovation. We had to follow this. I was not too charmed with being an assistant after that.

In 1972, I was working with Bob at the Pheasant Run Playhouse in Pheasant Run, Illinois, in a play called Who Was That Lady? Bob gave Johnny a part in that show. By that time he was estranged from his wife and was doing Bozo’s Circus in Chicago as one of the clowns. We started dating. Johnny also worked with me in Beginner’s Luck in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In November of 1973, Johnny worked a trade show in Detroit. The next day was Thanksgiving. He flew back to Chicago and we were married the day after Thanksgiving. This is why I can never keep the date of our anniversary straight: the day after Thanksgiving changes from year to year. I keep thinking our anniversary is always the day after Thanksgiving. The first two years we were married we probably saw each other twelve weeks one year and nine weeks the next year; I was still on the road with Bob Crane doing Beginner’s Luck and Johnny was working Vegas.

M: When did you work as Johnny’s assistant again?P: In 1974 the S.A.M. convention was in Boston. One of

the stage acts had cancelled, and they asked Johnny to come in to replace him. Johnny asked me to fly out and assist him. My job was basically to cart things on or off stage, but knowing me, you know that wasn’t going to work. I decided to improvise a few things that I thought fit with the character. Johnny didn’t know what I was doing, but we were getting laughs in places that didn’t normally get laughs. After the show, Del Ray asked Johnny, “Does she do that every show?” Johnny couldn’t really answer him; he didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

The next time we worked together was in 1976. Johnny was

Above: Pam, Johnny, and Bob Crane in Beginner's Luck (1972), Candid photo of Pam in Tommy Tucker's, Live Wires

(1971)


working in Vegas, but there had been a strike and all the showrooms were dark. Johnny got a call from his agent about a fill-in gig; Cary Grant and Joan Rivers had been booked to do a comedy magic hunk at the Magic Castle. Joan was offered a real gig and had to bail out, and Cary was uncomfortable doing the show without her, so he backed out. The Castle wanted a comedy magic act and Johnny agreed to do it. But his assistant had left Vegas, so he talked me into doing the show. As we drove from Vegas to L.A., he taught me the act and we discussed the subtext of the two characters.

We got to Hollywood, and then I found out that my boobs were too big for the assistant’s costume, the shoes w e r e too small for my feet, and the wig didn’t fit well. Much of the physical gags of the character just came about because the w a r d r o b e didn’t fit right. Also, I had been chewing gum backstage, and I forgot to spit it out before I went on stage. So I developed the character on the spot, with the funny walk, and the bored expression.

Well, we killed. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme were in the audience; they wanted us to open for them.

M: Improvising reactions and gestures that had not really been worked out with Johnny seems like a very bold move. Did this fearless improvisation come from your acting background and basically being in the moment? Were you thinking to yourself “If this was real, and this crazy pompous character had an assistant, how would she feel about him?”

P: Because we had gone over the show in the car, I had basically free rein to bring the character to life on the stage. But I came from the school of acting in which you take the character and, when you’re out there, if something occurs to the character to do, you try it. If it works, fine. If not, you don’t do that again. So what we did was a very loose thing. John would say, “Hey that was funny what you did.” And sometimes if he would try something

new, right after the show he’d ask me if it worked

or not.

M: What happened after the Castle performance?

P: Johnny said to me, “You tell Bob Crane you’re

going to do one more Begin-ner’s Luck for him and then

you’re joining the act.”I finished touring

with Bob. The next two jobs Johnny and I did together were not particularly en-couraging. The first was at The Whiskey A-Go-Go on Sunset Boulevard in Los

Angeles. The place was a real dump and

our dressing room was a disaster. Our

opening show was packed, however, and

Bob Crane showed up. Afterward he came up

to our dressing room and said to me, “You left me for this?”

We went from there to Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Un for t u nate -ly, this was the summer that Legion-naire Disease broke out in

the northeast. However, part of the Cherry Hill deal was that we would work the Tropicana in Vegas. From that point on, things started looking up. We bought a house in Vegas and lived there until 1978.

M: What happened then?P: We moved to Los Angeles. We had talked about getting

back into acting. We wanted to be discovered; and we both almost made it. We almost got the one thing that would have mattered.

We had both done a lot of episodic TV. Then two writers who had worked on The Donny and Marie Show wrote a pilot script for Johnny. It was called The Trouble with Celia, and was a sort of Polish All in the Family. Both Johnny and I auditioned for it, but it didn’t work out. We got bumped for “name” stars, but the series never aired. We eventually moved back to Vegas.

M: While you were in L.A. you had one of magic’s most famous house guests – Charlie Miller. How did that come about?

P: Johnny’s father (who had been living with us) had died; Johnny said to me, “There’s a room in the back just sitting there

Ted Salter caricature hanging at the World Famous Magic Castle, Hollywood, CA


empty, and Charlie’s paying rent. I’d love to have Charlie move in with us.” I was in total agreement. He was the nicest house guest anyone could ever have. He was never a problem. Ever meal he ate with us was the greatest meal in the world. The kids in the neigh-borhood called him Uncle Charlie. He taught all the kids some magic. He was just wonderful. Every day Johnny was home with him they had a session.

I took care of him like his mother. He was kind of a momma’s boy. I wouldn’t let him eat ice cream because he had diabetes. I’d be driving home and he’d be walking along with an ice cream cone; when he saw me he’d palm it. I’d let him just stand there until the ice cream was running down his hand onto the sidewalk. Finally, I’d say, “Why don’t you go ahead and finish your ice cream, Charlie?”

It was wonderful to have him with us.

M: Let’s talk about your tremendous love for animals. Did this start when you were a kid?

P: Actually, I have always had animals. My mother was an animal freak, like I am. I got my first Chihuahua when I was married to Peter. When I left Peter, I took Kevin and the dog and moved to New York City. I was having my apartment painted, and the painters said to me, “You shouldn’t leave that dog in here. The fumes might be bad for him. Take her over to the vet and let her sit for the afternoon.” Of course, this was in the dark ages when paint had lead in it. But I didn’t have time to do that, I had to get to a gig. In those days people in the modeling business carried big hand bags, so I shoved the dog in my purse and took her with me. And from that day on I took her wherever I went.

M: So you have traveled with dogs ever since then.

P: Yes. I’ve smuggled them onto trains and airplanes and into restaurants for thirty-plus years. The only other people I know who did that were Clarke Crandall and Tommy Tucker.

M: Do you have any suggestions for women who want to embark in this line of

work – as a magician’s assistant?P: Don’t. (Long pause and laughter.) Actually, it’s a tough

business, but so is mowing lawns for a living. If you want to get into the business, then starting out as a magician’s assistant is not a bad way to begin.

M: You have managed over the past forty years to do something that few couples can do: have your life partner be your business/performing partner. What advice do you have about this?

P: One thing that helps is that Johnny and I talk all the time. Even if we’re upset about something, we never stop talking.

M: And you’re very funny people. I think that’s a big factor.P: That’s true. We make jokes; I think humor helps us get

through a lot of the tough times.

M: Looking back on it all, has it been fun?P: Absolutely. It’s been like a sit-com – a sit-com with so many

wonderful special guests.

Pam & John playing harmonica

Johnny, Pam, and Gracie

Pam and Ava Close (understudy) on a recent visit to Las Vegas

In the January column I listed what I called the Fundamental Rules of Stage Magic. This month I will discuss Rule Number 2:

“The big movement masks the smaller, secret movement.”

The purpose of this rule is to hide a secret movement in a different way from Rule Number 1, which utilized a natural, visible movement to hide a secret movement. Before I explain Rule Number 2, I will first discuss another method to hide a secret move, which is not covered by any of my other rules. That other method is “misdirection.”

Basically, misdirection means that a magician executes a secret move while the spectators are looking elsewhere. If you are performing a trick for only a couple of people, you could simply wait to execute the secret move until they are looking away from what you don’t want them to see. But if you are a stage performer, you can’t possibly keep track of every specta-tor’s gaze. Therefore, with a large group of people, you cannot expect misdirection to manifest itself spontaneously. In such cases, the key to effective misdirection is to actively direct the spectators’ attention to a place that is spatially different from where the secret action is occurring. Fur-thermore, if you can do this active misdi-rection in a manner that seems natural or logical within the context of what you are doing, then the audience will have been distracted without knowing it. This type of subtle misdirection was often utilized by the master manipulator Cardini.

For example, let’s look at the first ball steal that Cardini did in his act. Hidden under the left side of his tail coat was a cloth “Downs Bag” ball holder, inside of which was an orange billiard ball. After a humorous routine with his monocle and a Harlequin Cigarette Holder and byplay with a pack of matches, Cardini finally lit his cigarette. Having just gone through a long (comedic) effort to smoke that cigarette, it was a moment in his act when his character could finally relax. So, in a natural manner, he dropped his left hand

to his left side (which kept it near the secret ball holder). In his right hand was an ex-tinguished wooden match, which logically must be discarded. He then turned to his left and tossed the match towards stage left. Cardini watched the thrown match fly across the stage to the floor, while simul-taneously stealing the ball from under his coat with his left hand. This entire sequence appears very natural to the audience and Cardini’s gaze toward the flying wooden match created a very powerful misdirec-tion that enabled him to steal the ball with his left hand without detection.

I would be remiss if I did not mention another aspect of the aforementioned Cardini ball steal. Namely the fact that human beings instinctively are drawn to look at sudden moving objects. I suspect that this is evolutionary biology at work, due to mankind’s long history of warfare and hunting (and sometimes being hunted by large predators). For instance, when I am working at my desk, my peripheral vision allows me to see a window that faces the front of my house. Whenever a squirrel or chipmunk goes by that window, I am compelled to look at these moving animals. It’s an instinct that I cannot overcome. So in Cardini’s case, the flying match is something that instantly draws the spectators’ eyes away from his ball steal.

Another instinctive human reaction is to look directly into the eyes of a person who is looking into your eyes. It is for this reason that police officers are trained to avoid concentrating on the eyes of po-tentially dangerous suspects. Instead, the police are often taught to pay more attention to the suspect’s hands. This is because eyes in themselves cannot kill you, but hands can be very dangerous, es-pecially if they gain access to a weapon. The human instinct to maintain eye contact can be used for the purposes of misdirec-tion; such a ruse was often discussed by the great Scottish conjurer John Ramsay.

A good example of using eye contact for misdirection is Roy Benson’s presenta-tion of the Long Pour Salt Trick. Just prior to stealing the secret salt-filled gimmick from his left hand to his right hand, Benson looked at his hands, which directed the audience to do the same. Benson then suddenly said, “Watch,” and quickly opened his eyes wide, looking directly at the audience. This action directed the

spectators to look directly into Benson’s eyes; at that exact moment he secretly stole the salt gimmick into his right hand.

The use of misdirection is not limited to sleight of hand; it can often be useful in apparatus magic. Take for instance the classic Nixon Duck Vanish. This is a prop trick that is usually credited to the vaude-ville magician William “Doc” Nixon, but it was probably invented simultaneously by the illusionist Servais LeRoy. There are many variations of the duck vanish, but today it typically consists of a wheeled cage that contains a live duck. The cage has white wooden bars on all four sides, with a wide decorative border along the top edge. The top of the cage has a hinged lid consisting of a wooden frame with bars that resemble the wooden bars on the sides, but the bars on the top are actually made of elastic cloth. The other part of the apparatus is a table with a wooden box on top. The box is made in such a manner that it can be quickly taken apart into six pieces. The lid of the box has a special compartment that is thick enough to conceal a duck. The basic working of the trick is that the magician removes the duck from the cage and places it into the compartment in the lid of the box. The lid is subsequently removed by tilting it forward so that the thickness of the lid is not seen. The lid is then quickly placed on top of the cage; because the bars on the top of the cage are elastic, they give way to the hidden compartment in the lid. Furthermore, the wide decorative border on the top edge of the cage helps hide the thick lid. The rest of the box is taken apart and each piece is placed on top of the lid that rests on the cage. Ultimately there is nothing left of the box and the duck has seemingly disappeared.

I have seen this kind of duck vanish performed many times; in my opinion there is something very wrong with the way the current magicians do the trick. Frankly, I am very troubled by the extremely unnatural way that performers lift the lid (that secretly contains the duck). I understand that they are tilting the top lid to hide the duck compartment, but as far as I am concerned they are harming the mystery of the trick. With such a trick it is far better to have some sort of mis-direction to occur during the moment the duck is secretly transferred to the lid of the cage. For instance, when the late illusion-ist Richiardi Jr. vanished two doves with


By Levent

Stage 101

a similar type of box, he had a large scarf resting on top of the box. After he put the doves into the box, he whisked the scarf off the box and threw it high in the air; then he instantly lifted the lid and tossed it to an assistant. Every eye in the house was misdirected by the flying scarf and nobody noticed the strange way he lifted the lid!

The best duck vanish I ever saw was the version created by the late comedy/magic team Milo and Roger, who actually built their reputation on this trick. Their duck box was made differently from the original Nixon prop. Their duck was hidden in a secret swinging container that could fall off of the back of the table and hang from the back edge of the box’s bottom.

In performance, the duck was put into the box and secretly placed into the com-partment. Milo then gave the lid of the box to Roger, who held it like a tray. Next Milo removed the back of the box and put it on top of the lid held by Roger. Milo then removed one side of the box and tossed that on top of the other pieces in Roger’s hands. Remaining on the table were the front of the box and one side, both of which were connected by a piano hinge, so they acted like a two-fold screen. Milo shifted this two-fold screen back towards himself, which cause the container holding the duck to fall off the table and hang from the back edge of the bottom of the box. Milo then picked up this two-fold screen and put it on top of the other parts that Roger held. This was done in a suspicious way that made the audience think that the duck was secretly hidden behind the two-fold screen. Finally, Roger picked up the bottom of the box, by tilting it forward so that the duck compartment swung to the back of the panel. This way of lifting the bottom panel is extremely suspicious looking, so Milo and Roger crafted very powerful misdirection to hide the move. The moment that Milo began to lift the bottom of the box, Roger “accidentally” let the two-fold screen and the two other sides of the box fall off the top panel that he was holding. The falling pieces caused a tremendous amount of misdirection that completely covered the strange way of

lifting the bottom of the box. This misdi-rection was especially strong because they led the audience to believe that there was a duck hidden behind the falling two-fold screen. By the time the audience realized that the two-fold screen did not contain a duck, Milo had placed the bottom of the box on top of the cage, whose thick border hid the concealed duck. Immediately thereaf-ter they placed the pieces from the floor on top of the cage and then disassembled the table to show that the duck was completely gone. Milo and Roger built a big reputation on their baffling duck vanish and they left us with a great lesson on the application of misdirection in apparatus magic.

There is another aspect of misdirection that is rarely spoken of in the magical arts and that is the use of humor. For instance, in my stage repertoire I have a comedy routine that involves a specially modified Himber wallet. During this routine I must do a strange-looking move with my gimmicked wallet. I cover the odd move by saying a funny line that makes the audience laugh. The moment the entire audience is laughing, I execute the move. I have discovered that people cannot laugh and pay careful attention to your hands at the same time. With regard to this technique I’ve come up with the following motto: “Laughter is the best misdirection.”

You might be asking why I wrote this long essay about misdirection when it has nothing to do with Rule Number 2. The reason is because when you have to hide a secret move, you should generally mask the move with either a natural move (Rule Number 1) or by misdirection. I felt it was appropriate to explain the basics of misdi-rection as it applies to the stage performer. But truth be told, there are times in which you cannot use the aforementioned techniques to mask a secret move; in such cases you can sometimes use Rule Number 2, which is: “The big movement masks the smaller, secret movement.”

A good example of this is when I perform the Long Pour Salt Trick (which is based on some of the techniques developed by Roy Benson). After I show the audience that the salt has disappeared

from my left hand, I need to reproduce the salt in my right hand. In order to do that, I must remove the tip of my right forefin-ger from the mouth of the salt gimmick and rotate the gimmick 90 degrees so that the opening is facing downward. After I do this the mouth of the gimmick is held against the palm of my hand by means of a Tenkai palm. This allows me to control the flow of the salt by moving my thumb. (This handling was invented by Dai Vernon for his famous “Harlequin” stage act from the year 1938.) The shifting of the gimmick requires a lot of finger movement that cannot be covered by Rule Number 1 or by misdirection. So, like Roy Benson did, I cover it by making a big up and down motion of the right hand. This grand hand gesture is so big that it hides the relatively smaller movement of the fingers.

Another example of this ruse is in my original presentation of the Sympathetic Silks. Several times in the routine I have three silks tied with square knots that are secretly upset (using techniques developed by Slydini). This means that the seemingly secure knots can be pulled off the corners of the silks. In order to accomplish this, I use some methods that I invented that use some severe finger movements. Unfor-tunately, like the Salt Pour, I am unable to hide my finger movements by Rule Number 1 or by misdirection. So I follow Rule Number 2 and I remove the knots while doing a large movement of placing the silks down on either a chair or a table. This big movement consists of moving the group of silks a distance of about three feet and the blur of action completely hides the untying of the silks; this makes the sleight undetectable!

If you want to see these techniques in action, you should go to my website at www.LeventMagic.com, where I have YouTube links of me performing the Long Pour Salt trick and the Sympathetic Silks on television shows.

In the next column I will cover Rule Number 3.

© 2013 Levent Cimkentli


Stage 101

http://www.magicmagazine.com

impROmptU change

There are always those times when someone asks, “Can you do something right now?” I find that in those moments of performing spontaneously, the more organic and effortless the trick, the larger the impact. The following is a simple and totally impromptu piece that can be a great deal of fun to present. The key to this simple piece is to take your time and make the process just as fun and interesting as the final revelation.

“You want me to show you something right now? Well, let’s see...When you catch me off guard like this, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that it will work. There’s always a little luck involved. It’s like the flip of a coin. Do you have any change on you? Great.”

Oscar (the spectator) spills a handful of change on the table. You slide some of the coins back to him and tell him this will be enough. There is a small amount of change in various denominations on the table. You pick up one of the coins and flip it in your hand.

“I have a very good feeling about this. Yes, I’m sure this will work. Life is about risk, uncertainty, decisions, and luck.

“Oscar, I will turn my back and you will perform a few various random tasks. I have already flipped a coin in my hand, so I know what the outcome will be.”

Without looking at the coins on the table, you begin to give Oscar the following instructions:

“Oscar, sometimes the world seems very random. Turn over any coin. (Wait.) Other times, it seems we have at least a small amount of control. Turn over a coin of a small denomination. (Wait.) There are also times when things seem to overwhelm us. Put your fingers on any two coins and turn them both over. (Wait.) That is when we fight for the most control. Turn over a

large denomination coin. (Wait.) There are also moments of déjà-vu. Turn over a coin that you have previously turned over. (Wait.) Oscar, I want you to cover one coin with your hand. Make sure I cannot see it when I turn around.”

Oscar complies and you slowly turn around with your hand in a closed fist.

“And sometimes, through all the chaos in the world, when the odds seem stacked against us – we get lucky.” You slam your palm (the one with the coin in it) on the table next to his. “I will bet doughnuts to dollars that when we pick up our hands, the coins will both be tails up.” Indeed, when both hands are removed, the above statement is shown to be correct.

So, how is this little miracle accom-plished? The trick is an old one. Some of you might vaguely remember this principle from when you started in magic so many years ago. It is a mathematical principle.

When Oscar drops the change out on the table, you need to accomplish two things. First, keep the amount of change between five to eight coins. Any more than eight could make this more difficult for you than you would like. Later you will have to count the number of heads-up coins on the table, so you don’t want too many coins in play. Second, you must currently count the number of heads-up coins on the table. What you want is an even number. If the number is not even, then pick up one of the heads-up coins from the table. This action will create an even number of heads-up coins on the table.

Here’s an example: Oscar spills out twelve coins. You will push five coins back to him, leaving two heads-up coins and five tails-up coins. You then pick up one of the tails-up coins. This leaves six coins on the table with two heads-up and four-tails up.

Why do you want an even number of heads-up coins? The trick works on a mathematical principle called integer parity. As long as you add or subtract an even number from an even number, you will have an even number. The most un-complicated way to look at this is to reduce the number of coins to one. If I start with a heads-up coin and tell you to turn over the

coin an even number of times, the coin will be heads up at the conclusion. If you have multiple coins, and you start with an even number of coins heads-up, and I have you turn over coins an even number of times, the number of heads-up coins will be even at the conclusion.

Knowing this, you can know the ori-entation of the coin under Oscar’s hand. If the number of visible heads-up coins on the table is even, then you know the coin under his hand is tails up. If the number of visible coins heads up is odd, then you know that the coin under his hand is heads up. (Important note: During the procedure, he must turn over an even amount of coins.)

Now for the subtle points of the presen-tation that hide the math: 1) Each time you ask Oscar to turn over a coin, give him a reason that fits your story. Don’t make this a stark, task-oriented procedure. 2) Picking up the initial coin and holding it creates the idea that somehow you already know what is about to happen. Sometimes I flip the coin in between each question, as if it is telling me what to instruct Oscar to do. 3) Keep the coins on the table to a minimum. 4) When you make the final revelation, make it about the coin in your hand. This diverts attention away from the remaining coins. I put my hand next to his so that the coin under his hand and my coin are the only focus.

I keep my coin in the palm of my hand, heads up. If the spectator’s coin is heads up, I place my closed fist palm up next to his. I then open my hand first and then let him lift up his hand to show the match. If his coin is tails up, I will slap my hand on the table, palm down, next to his. This turns over the coin that was in the palm of my hand; it is now lying on the table, tails up under my palm. I then say my line and lift up my hand showing the coin tails up. The spectator does the same.

The key to this little mystery is to tell a story as you navigate through the procedure. Years ago, I used to tell a story about finding true love, one’s true match, if you get my meaning. The story you tell must come from your own life experi-ences. Audiences love short, interesting stories with a surprising payoff.


By Christian Painter

Mental Breakdown

http://www.themagicbakery.com

“When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.” —John Ruskin

WhY caRd manipULatiOn?I was eleven years old at summer camp watching the first live magic show I ever saw. On the bill that hot summer afternoon in 1981 was S.A.M. PNP Ray-Mond; I watched him pulling card after card out of the air and my jaw was on the floor. “Where the heck are those cards coming from?” I said to myself. I made it a mission to learn. From the age of twelve to twenty-six, I learned all kinds of card manipula-tion moves, but for some reason, I never put a manipulation routine in my show.

Then one day, I was talking to Denny Haney, after just seeing him kill with his card manipulation routine. I mentioned that I would love to do something like that in my show. He said, “Then why don’t you? Here, learn my routine; try it out and see what you think. I bet once you do it, you will never take it out.” So right then and there, Denny taught me his routine in the back of that theater in Vegas; it went into my show, and I have done it ever since.

Why had I neglected card manipula-tion? I suppose that the years of studying and practicing the moves had made them seem trivial and second nature to me. I had forgotten the deep effect a card manipula-tion routine had on me as a layman. I had forgotten the reason I became a magician in the first place. I was having a Burt Wonderstone moment. It took a push from Denny to remind me of the magic that I had forgotten about all those years ago.

the BeaUtY Of it

There is something beautiful about simple and elegant card manipulation. When presented deliberately and purpose-

fully, the audience perceives it as skillful and poetic on a deep, subconscious level. They must assume it is pure skill, because all they see is a deck of cards and your hands. No props, tubes, boxes, or para-phernalia – just two hands and a deck of cards. But as strong as card manipulation is on its own, many magic contest and silent stage acts tend to subconsciously trivialize it; they simply drop in card ma-nipulation with other types of magic in order to “beef up a routine.” We see people producing billiard balls, silks, cards, doves, and a host of other things, which can often become a blur. But in reality, card manipu-lation is strong enough to live on its own as a complete act. In fact, Denny puts it this way:

“My card manipulations have gone through a series of changes over my entire career since I graduated the Chavez Course in 1963. In the Chavez lessons, I learned so many ways to produce, fan, and manipulate cards; for years I would open my act with a ten-minute routine done to music with all kinds of knuckle-busting card manipu-lations, all the while producing candles, doves, and silks. It was a nice opening, but it took a lot to set up. I’m loading cards up my butt, rolling up silks, filling up candles with lighter fluid, and stuffing birds in my coat; it was a lot of work. It was a nice act, but nobody really talked about it after the show. They all talked about the Malini Egg Bag or the Torn and Restored Newspaper or the Bottles. I always wondered why.

“After about ten years of doing this, I was rereading Our Magic by Maskelyne and Devant. The first half of the book is on theory. One of the points the book makes is to simplify your manipulations. I was doing the interlocked production, producing cards this way and that way with body loads and steals, and it was too much. After Lee and I broke up and I was audi-tioning girls for the show, I was working solo for a while and decided to take that idea of simplification and apply it to the opening I was doing. So I put together a

four-minute routine, moved it to the middle of my show, and gave it an introduction as one of my favorite types of magic. All of a sudden it was killing! And with a few little tweaks here and there it has been that way ever since.”

Denny’s former opening, which was confusing and nonsensical, was pared down and a light was shone on it that made it special.

the cOntext

To understand the power of Denny’s manip routine, you must understand the context that he puts it in. During the days of the Denny and Lee show, at this point in the act, the audience has already seen the Egg Bag, the Torn and Restored Newspaper, and perhaps an illusion or two like the Crystal Box, Sword Basket, or Sword Suspension. Here is Denny’s script to introduce the card manipulation:

“Of all the magic I’ve done over my years, my favorite type of magic, the magic I enjoy most, is magic done without props, without tubes, without gimmicks or boxes. It’s magic done with the hands. Today I truly enjoy doing this in all my shows, so for the next few minutes I would like you to sit back and relax as I present some pure sleight of hand, using nothing more than my ten fingers...” (Denny pauses at this point; both he and the audience notice that he has five fingers one hand and six on the other. He has secretly snuck a Vernet Sixth Finger on his right hand. He lets the laugh die down and then plucks the fake finger from his hand.) I have one too many!”

Denny now throws the finger on the floor and continues. “As I said, I’ll use nothing more than my ten fingers, a deck of cards, a hat, and a cane.” Denny’s routine can be broken into three phases. We will tackle the first two phases this month.

The music starts to play. It is an instru-mental version of the appropriately titled song “All By Myself.” Denny now adds, “Watch this closely; I hope you like it.”


By Scott Alexander

On the Shoulders of GiantsStage Magic and Theory

from Denny Haney

Upon saying this, he looks to his right as Minh brings him a hat and cane. She hands him the props and then pulls out a pair of tongs. She clinks them together, bends over, and picks up the Sixth Finger from the floor. She looks at the audience and says, “Finger tongs!” The audience laughs; Denny rolls his eyes and acts annoyed that she got a good laugh. It is a wonderful bit of byplay that helps to cement their onstage relationship.

the ROUtine

Part One – Diminishing Cards: Denny begins his routine by popping open the legs of a Norm Nielsen Cane to Table and putting a pop-up silk top hat on top of it. Yes, that’s 750 dollars and he has barely done a trick. Why would he spend that much money on a two-second bit? Well, he has been using the same Cane to Table for nearly forty years. It is expensive, but it has lasted for forty years! Think about that the next time you buy a cheaper version of a trick to save a buck or two.

Now Denny starts the Diminishing Cards effect using a thumb fan. This idea is right out of Greater Magic. By placing your fingers in different parts of the deck and fanning the cards you can create the illusion that the card fans are getting smaller and smaller (Photo 1). This plus strong acting and a clever gimmick Denny learned to make from the Chavez course in magic completes the illusion.

First let’s touch on the Diminishing Cards. The first thumb fan is made in the standard way; by moving the position of the left thumb on the back of the deck to different spots, the fans appear to get smaller and smaller. This is helped further by using your right hand as a size reference. If you hold up your right hand behind the

subsequent fans of cards, it shows the shrinking of the cards (Photos 2 and 3).

The idea from Chavez makes the illusion complete. Denny was taught to make an extra card that had three pockets or slots in the back to hold three cards of diminishing sizes. That way each time a single card was shown to be removed from the fan it would be smaller. In reality the

little file card is just riding the back of the deck and you remove the right size card for the right size fan (Photo 4).

This is a version of the gimmick I made (Photo 5). Although a little bit different in its construction than the original Chavez gimmick (if you want to see that one, take the course), it still gets the job done. The important thing is that the little cards you remove are a great convincer that the deck is really getting smaller and smaller.

Another touch that adds a lot to this routine is the acting. You must act as if you are shrinking the cards down. I’ve seen people do the Diminishing Cards and they sort of “half-ass it.” When Denny does it, he really acts like he is shrinking those cards. Not only does he squeeze his hands around the deck, but his whole body gets smaller (Photo 6). He physically makes himself diminish in size by crouching lower and lower. He brings the cards closer to his face and makes his body movements more constricted and closer to his body each time he shrinks the deck. This is what really sells the routine.

The Diminishing Sequence: The deck is fanned to show it is a deck of cards. Denny says you must really establish that this is nothing more than a deck of cards. This is demonstrated by pulling out a regular card from the fan, displaying it, and then dropping it into the hat.

Denny then moves his left thumb to the back right corner of the deck and does another thumb fan; the deck appears smaller. He removes the largest of the extra cards from the gimmick and drops it into the hat. He holds up his hand behind the fan to show the size difference and then closes the fan and begins squeezing the deck down again. At this point people aren’t quite sure. They are saying to themselves,


Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Photo 4

Photo 5

Photo 6

“Are those cards really getting smaller?”Denny now fans the deck with his left

thumb in the center of the deck and the deck appears to be smaller. He takes the next smallest card out and drops it in the hat. He shows the hand size difference and then closes the fan and squeezes the deck down again.

The last time he simply thumbs the cards very slightly, forming a tight fan, all the while wiggling his fingers, leaning in, looking at the cards, and acting as if they are so tiny he is having a hard time seeing them, let alone controlling them (Photo 7). It seems at any minute they could fall on the floor. He then takes the tiniest card, looks at it, and laughs.

“Shrinking cards are funny to a lay audience, so enjoy it and laugh along with them,” Denny says. This is really the true secret to Denny’s whole persona. He is having fun right along with the audience. Chuckling at the last card, he drops it in the hat (Photo 8). Again he shows his hand is now huge compared to the fan. He then grips the deck and appears to stretch the cards back to their original size. Denny takes the gimmicked card with the pockets

off the back of the pack. Holds it up and openly drops it into the hat; this cleans up the deck and prepares it for the card fanning sequence.

Part Two – Exhibition Card Fanning: I will touch briefly on the card fanning sequence here and describe some of the technique. But as Denny told me, most of what he knows about card manipula-tion and fanning came from three sources: the Chavez Course, Exhibition Card Fansby Goodlet Dodson, and Card Fantasiesby Edward Love. There is some stuff he does that is from other sources like Tarbell and Greater Magic, but mostly everything Denny does in his routine can be easily gleaned from these two books. Denny will often recommend older books to his customers or students to find those hidden gems that are worth digging for. He also recommends Ganson’s Routined Manipu-lation.

The first sequence uses fanning cards, which is unfamiliar to a lot of young magicians. When Denny performs at the Magic Castle many of the young guys say, “What is that card stuff you did? We’ve never seen that!” If someone does use a fanning deck, most of the time it is just a throwaway. They miss the beautiful effects that can be achieved from every subtle nuance. If you don’t know what fanning cards are, they are basically cards with a back design that has four different con-trasting colors, one in each corner. The deck can be fanned four different ways to produce four different patterns across the fanned cards. There are many decks that have been marketed over the years. Denny uses old school Unique Magic Studio cards put out by Harry Stanley. Some more popular ones are the Abbott Fanning Deck or the Joe Cosari Deck, which I’m using in these photos. You will even find some decks that can be used as fanning cards in the dollar store. Just look for cards that have interesting and varied back designs in each corner, treat them with some fanning powder, and poof, you have a fanning deck.

In his opening of this sequence, Denny makes a fan and turns slowly, showing the beautiful rainbow of color on the back of the cards. This should be a moment. The trap most guys fall into when they are doing card fans, if they do them at all, is that they do one fan, flip the deck, and roll right into the next. There is no emphasis

put on anything. They don’t take the time to create “a moment” or “an effect.” They do these moves as if they are just the most casual, nonchalant things in the world. As magicians, a flourish that might be “stock and trade” to us is actually brand new to an audience. Chances are they have never seen anything like it before. By blowing through moves we are so accustomed to and not making an effect out of them, the beauty and skill is totally lost on the audience. You are creating a special moment as you highlight each flourish. Denny’s philoso-phy is that everything must have an effect. Even the most inconsequential thumb fan is inherently interesting to the audience. Never throw away a moment of beauty or wonder.

Once Denny turns to show the back of the fan he executes a pantomime bit remi-niscent of Red Skelton. He pretends to grab a hair from his head, sews it thru the card fan, and pulls it to close the fan. This is a simple throw-away gag that magicians all do, but Denny adds real personality and acting to it, and it has an effect on the audience. He really believes, in his mind, that he is sewing the cards with a needle and thread. This is something the great acting teacher Stanislavsky called being “in the moment.” Because Denny has practiced these moves tirelessly for years, he is free to not even think about the sleights or moves. He is totally free to be one-hundred percent present in the moment, along with the audience, experiencing what they are experiencing. This kind of thing is hard to teach, but by watching pros like Denny, and being aware of this idea, you can see how effective it is. Fred Kaps was a master of this technique.

Next, Denny makes another thumb fan showing a different color. He reacts to the color change just as the audience does. It is


on the shoulders of giants

Photo 7

Photo 8 Photo 9

almost as if he is saying, “Look at that...isn’t that cool?” This is said in his mind and therefore it registers on his face. The audience reads his reactions and makes assumptions on how they are supposed to react. This give and take between Denny and the audience really fuels the reactions. He does a one-hand close of the fan and sets up to do the Rising Sun.

To perform the Rising Sun, you make a thumb fan and then break off a portion, so that your left fingers can pull the cards on the back portion of the deck towards the left, causing a second fan to form behind the one in the front. This creates the image of the sun rising over a hillside, thus the name the Rising Sun (Photo 9). It is a beautiful and subtle flourish that really registers with the audience. Denny leans in and directs all his attention on the cards so that the audience knows exactly where to look as the cards are fanned.

Denny follows this by making a fan; he then splits it into two fans. This is called

a Split Fan (not to be confused with the split fans used in standard card production manipulation). He makes a fan of about half the cards, leaving some of the stock on the face of the deck and then reverse fans that stock back to the left. He goes into the center and splits the fan into two fans and then displays both fans with his arms spread wide apart, which puts him in perfect applause position (Photo 10). Again, all these techniques can be found in the books I mentioned.

Denny then closes both fans simultane-ously with both hands. Minh would come

out with a gimmicked fan that automatically springs open, ap-parently showing her skill. The audience would applaud for her and then she would expose that the fan just pops open. Denny, acting mildly annoyed, waves her off the stage and she exits laughing. It was a great bit of byplay that set up the next sequence of legitimate card ma-nipulation. These comic bits are now sometimes done by Puck whenever he and Denny work

the Magic Castle. Puck acts as a disgrun-tled and unwilling fellow performer roped into helping Denny. It’s quite funny.

Before he moves on to the next phase, Denny springs the fanning deck into the hat in a grand flourish and simply removes a deck of Norm Nielsen Manipulation Cards from his left jacket pocket. No palming, no sleights, he just grabs the deck and he is off and running.

Next month, we will tackle the traditional card manipulation portion of Denny’s sequence, so polish up your back-palming skills!


Photo 10

http://www.klamm-magic.com

sVenVOOdOO“It’s the price you pay for not paying the

price.” – Liam Birt, tour manager for Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers

Effect: After showing the deck to be well-mixed, the magician has a card selected (no force).

The deck is mixed and the magician – without looking at the cards – immediately announces a position from the top of the deck. (For example, the magician says, “Twelve.” The twelfth card from the top is the selected card.)

“Let’s do that again,” the magician says. A second spectator selects a card; the card is returned and the deck is mixed. It is then spread across the table face down so the magician cannot manipulate it in any way. The magician asks the first spectator to give him any number from one to fifty-two (no force).

That card is counted to before the second spectator names his card; the spectator puts his finger on the card so it cannot be moved. The cards on either side of the mystery card are shown: they are not the selection. The second spectator now names his card (e.g., the Ten of Diamonds). The second spectator lifts his finger and turns over the card he has been touching; it is his card, the Ten of Diamonds – his card at the freely named number!

Method: Fans of the Any Card at Any Number effect (ACAAN) may find this to be an interesting addition to the work so far. Here it almost appears as if the trick is done twice, and each part works to cancel out solutions to the other part. Forces and duplicate cards seem to be ruled out, since the spectators see a regular, shuffled deck, and the card selections and numbers used seem completely random.

But duplicate cards and forcing are the heart of the secret: the Svenvoodoo deck – a brand new take on an old idea, a hybrid Svengali/Peek deck with some very odd features. Even those familiar with the Svengali deck (i.e., the entire population of the western world) will be fooled by this

version, because none of the usual tip-offs are used and the deck does not use short-and-long cards.

Bare Bones: The deck has twenty-six force cards alternating with twenty-six random cards in the usual Svengali ar-rangement. All of the cuts and shuffles are false, so the deck is always in the same order. Because of its unusual construction, the Svenvoodoo deck can be shown as all different when face up, and when face down can either allow the choice of an in-different card or a force card – but without the usual requirement of riffling first one way then the other. Each card selection looks exactly the same.

The first selection comes from the twenty-six indifferent cards. As soon as the selection is made, the magician knows where it lies in the deck because that in-formation is coded on the back of the next card down in the deck (a force card). So, after some presentational hoodoo, the magician can announce that position and simply count down to it.

The second selection is forced; since every second card is a force card, any number from one to fifty-two can be used to count to it (using a very sneaky and easy technique to adjust for odd or even numbers). Since there are always two random cards on either side of a force card, those cards can be shown to “prove” the miracle.

It will take about an hour to make the deck up, but is very easy to do and doesn’t require any special ability (if it did, I wouldn’t have been able to do it).

Materials: You need to assemble the following items.

Twenty-six duplicate, red-backed Bicycle cards (the force cards).

Twenty-six random red-backed Bicycle cards (hereafter referred to as indifferent cards), none of which are duplicates of the force card.

A red, Ultra Fine Point, Sharpie Permanent Marker.

A talisman. This can be any small, in-teresting object that fits in your pocket.

The most important item of all, one of Frank Comito’s little cutters, the Korner-Short. This is a wonderful little device that cuts a perfect corner-shorted card.

Since you’ll be cutting a whole deck, each corner has to be perfect and only Frank’s machine will do. They are available from George Schindler’s Show-Biz Services (www.showbizmagic.net). Besides the cutter, you also get two booklets of tricks and ideas.

Cutting the Cards: Photo 1 shows how the cards are corner-shorted. With the cards face-up, the twenty-six force cards have both index corners clipped and one non-index corner clipped, while the twen-ty-six indifferent cards have one non-index corner clipped.

To see how this deck works, keep the cards in the orientation shown in Photo 1 and alternate the cards as shown in Photo 2. Turn the deck face down by flipping it side to side; hold it in dealing position in the left hand. The top card will be a force card. Riffle down the outer-left corner of the deck with your left thumb and stop anywhere. Lift off the cards above the break with the right hand; the bottom card of the right-hand packet will be an indif-ferent card. Replace the right-hand cards.

Keeping the deck face down, turn the deck 180 degrees, so that the end of the force card that has two short corners is at the outer end. Now, when you riffle down


Translated from the spanishBy R.D. Michaels

El Roberto Enigmatico The Magic of Bob Farmer

Photo 2

Photo 1

the outer-left corner and cut anywhere, the bottom card of the right-hand packet will be a force card.

Turn the deck face up from side to side, as if turning the pages of a book. There will be an indifferent card on the face of the deck. The two cut corners of the force card should be at the outer end of the deck. Arch your right hand palm down over the deck and grip the deck with your right thumb at the inner-left (non-index) corner, the forefinger curled on top, and the outer right corner between the fourth and fifth fingers. (Photo 3 shows the grip.)

Lift the deck and dribble the cards into your left hand by letting the cards spring off the right thumb; only indifferent cards will be seen (Photo 4). (Dribble about three-quarters of the deck and let the last quarter fall in a clump – this ensures that the last few cards don’t separate, revealing duplicate force cards.)

With practice, you can also spread the deck face up across the table by using the same grip and riffling off cards as you move left to right. This results in a messy spread of random faces that looks great.

Marking the Cards: Keeping the deck in its current arrangement (that is, force cards and indifferent cards alternating, force card on top, indifferent card on the face), turn the deck face down end for end and place it on the table (the end of the force card that has two cut corners will be nearest to you). We will now mark each of the force cards, using the Sharpie to block out the petals in the two flower shapes at the top of the card. Photo 5 shows a

close-up of the top edge of the card with the value of each of the petals indicated. (In Photo 5 the card has been marked to represent the number "28.")

On the top card of the deck, fill in the dot at the top of the Spade shape in the top center of the card (Photo 6). This is the only card that will be so marked; the sole purpose of this mark is to indicate the ori-entation of the deck.

Turn the top card face up, side to side, placing it beside the remainder of the deck. Turn over the next card in the same manner, placing it on the first card. The second card will be an indifferent card. Using the pen, block out the petal that rep-resents the number “2” on the back of the third card (a force card), which is now on top of the deck. Turn the third card over onto the first two. Turn over the next card (which is card number four, another indif-ferent card). On the back of the force card that now rests on top of the deck, block out the petal that represents the number “4.”

Continue this process through the entire deck. On the back of the eleventh card (a force card) you will block out the petal representing “10.” This will be the only mark on this card. On the back of the thirteenth card, you will block out both the “10” petal and the “2” petal. The only change in this procedure is when you get to the fifty-first card. Instead of blocking out a petal, you block out the center dot in the left-hand “flower” (Photo 7). This

completes the marking of the deck.How the Deck Works: Turn the deck

face down in the left hand, oriented so the dot on the top card is at the far edge. Run your left thumb down the upper left corner and stop at any time. Lift off the cards above the break with your right hand and hold them vertically with the faces out (as if you were showing the bottom card of the packet to a spectator). If you look down at the top card in the left hand, you’ll see the marks. These marks tell you the position of the card you are showing to your imaginary spectator. Remember this number. Take a look at the bottom card of the right-hand packet and replace the right-hand cards. To prove to yourself that this works, count down to the remembered number (do not change the order of the cards). The card at that number will be the card you saw.

Turn the deck 180 degrees. Run your left thumb down the upper left corner and stop at any time. Lift off the cards above the break with your right hand. The card on the bottom of this packet will be a force card.

Prior to Performance: Take the Joker and the Extra Joker and place them in the deck. If your force card is red (as the one in the photograph is), place each Joker in front of a black indifferent card in two widely separated locations. (Obviously, you will use red indifferent cards if your force card is black.) Place the deck in its case. Put the talisman in a convenient pocket.


El Roberto Enigmatico The Magic of Bob Farmer

Photo 4

Photo 3

Photo 5

Photo 6

Photo 7

You’ll need two spectators and a surface that will allow you to do a smooth ribbon spread.

[Note: You could do several effects with a normal deck and then switch in the Svenvoodoo deck by your favorite method, but using the two Jokers allows a very natural switch of decks at the conclusionof the Svenvoodoo trick. If you want to switch decks, have a regular deck (without Jokers) in its case in a pocket.]

The Routine: Bring out the Sven-voodoo deck and remove it from its case, placing the case aside on the table. “When I was kid, I was always amazed by the fact that my mother seemed to be able to find anything I had misplaced. She knew that my catcher’s mitt was at the bottom of the laundry hamper and that my homework was covered by a pile of newspapers.”Spread the deck between your hands, tilting the cards so the spectators cannot see the faces. Break the spread when you reach the first Joker. The right-hand cards should be squared; the left thumb pushes the Joker to the right slightly. Lower both hands; the left thumb pushes the Joker off the packet so it falls to the table. In the process, the spectators see two indifferent cards on the face of both packets (Photo 8).

“Take finding the Jokers in a deck for example; she could do this without even looking at the cards. It was just uncanny.”Tilt the cards away from the spectators, continue spreading through, and stop when the second Joker is on the face of the left-hand cards. Toss that card onto the table as you did with the first Joker. The spectators again see indifferent cards.

Square up the cards and hold them face down in the left hand. With the right hand, move the Jokers aside, away from the area where you will later be spreading the deck. During the next bit of patter you can give the deck a quick false shuffle and a false cut. However, be aware that this must look casual. Also be aware that if your shuffling and cutting disarrange any of the cards,

the trick is a bust. There is no easy way to recover.

“I always wondered what my mom’s secret was, and one day I found out. It was this. (Remove the talisman and put it on the table.) Holding this gives you the ability to know exactly where anything of importance is. I know that sounds unlikely, so I’ll prove it to you.”

Make sure the deck is oriented so the indicator mark on the top card is at the far edge of the deck. “I’m going to run my thumb slowly down the deck, Tom, and I’d like you to say stop whenever you’d like.” When Tom says stop, the right hand lifts off all the cards above the break and tilts vertical, displaying the bottom card to Tom. Look down, apparently keeping your eyes averted. “Do me a favor, Tom; remember this card.”

Tom commits the card to memory, and as he does so you are in the perfect position to look at the marks on the back of the top left-hand card. The marks translate into a number, which is the position of Tom’s card from the top of the deck. Once you’ve read the back, turn your head even further to the left.

“Can you see the card? Will you remember it? Thanks.” Keep your head turned away as the right hand drops its cards onto the left-hand cards. You can im-mediately go into a quick false shuffle or false cut. During the next bit of patter you will perform an action that (this time) will be innocent. It will condition the specta-tors for its occurrence in the second phase (which will not be so innocent).

“Would you not agree, Tom, that at this moment you are holding in your mind the identity of a card, and the name of that card and where it is in the deck are two pieces of information I cannot know?” Casually spread the top six cards from the left hand to the right and then square up the deck, taking control of it in an overhand grip with the right hand. Immediately ribbon spread the deck on the table (from left to right) with the right hand.

“There’s no way I can guess what card you’re thinking of, but I can find out where it is by using this. (Pick up the talisman and hold it in your right hand.) All I have to do is run my hand over the cards until the talisman gives me some information.(Stop suddenly.) I’ve got it. Your card is twenty-eighth from the top.” (Of course, you announce the number indicated by the marks you read.)

Using the tip of your right forefinger, gently push cards aside, counting down to the twenty-eighth card. (To maintain

consistency with the handling in the second phase, do not move any of the top ten cards, just count them. Once you get past the tenth card, you can gently push the cards to the right as you count them.) Separate the spread, pushing the twenty-eighth card forward.

“Tom, you’re thinking of a card, and I turned my head away as you thought of one. The deck was on the table; I could not have manipulated anything. Fortunately, the talisman did all the work. What card are you thinking of?” Tom announces his card and you dramatically turn the card over (side to side), revealing that you have found his selection.

Flip the card face down (side to side) and place it back into position in the deck. Immediately square up the deck into the left hand and turn it over end for end so it is face up. Using the right-hand grip explained earlier, lift the deck and dribble the cards back into the left hand. Indiffer-ent cards will show. “What’s remarkable about this is that you could have thought of any card. The power of the talisman let me find it.”

Turn the deck over side to side and give it a quick false shuffle and cut if you wish. The mark on the top card will now be at the inner end. The following patter will give you something to say as you do that.

“I know that you think that it is impos-sible for an inanimate object to have the kind of power I’ve just demonstrated, but it’s true. I’m going to prove it to you by having Tom do it this time. Tom, turn your head away. (Turn to the second spectator.) Andy, I’m going to run my thumb down the deck and I want you to stop me whenever you want.”

The selection procedure of the first phase is repeated, but because the deck has been turned so the mark is at the inner end, Andy will be looking at one of the force cards. Turn your head away as he looks. “Can you see the card, Andy? Will you remember it? Thanks.” Drop the right-hand cards onto the left-hand cards. Perform a false shuffle and cut if desired. Get a break under the top card and double-undercut it to the bottom. The actions of the first phase are now apparently repeated, but with one sneaky addition.

“Would you not agree, Andy, that at this moment you are holding in your mind the identity of a card, and the name of that card and where it is in the deck are two pieces of information that both Tom and I cannot know?” Casually spread the top six cards from the left hand to the right. With the left fingers, press up on the face


El Roberto Enigmatico

Photo 8

of the sixth card (Photo 9). The right fingers move the spread cards to the left. As this happens, the right fingers move from under the spread to the front of the deck; the right hand turns at the wrist to accomplish this. The spread cards square up with the deck, the left fingers keep the sixth card from squaring with the deck. It remains side-jogged to the right. The right hand (which has moved to an overhand grip as before) conceals this jogged card (Photo 10, an exposed view). Immediately ribbon spread the deck on the table (from left to right) with the right hand. Although the spread looks identical to the spread in the first phase, the sixth card is actually hidden under the spread.

“Tom, please pick up the talisman and hold it in your right hand. Pass your hand over the spread of cards. Clear your mind...Clear your mind...Now, give me a number from one to fifty-two!”

At this moment, the force cards reside at the even positions in the deck. The number Tom names will be odd or even. The procedure for counting to the correct card is not only identical in appearance for both possibilities, it is identical to the procedure used in the first phase.

If Tom names an odd number: Because the sixth card of the deck is hidden under the spread, it is possible to count directly to Tom’s named odd number. As

the first ten cards are counted by the right first finger, they are touched very slightly (but they are not moved). As soon as the count passes the number ten, the cards can be pushed more to the right as they are counted. The hidden sixth card remains hidden, and the card reached by the count (an odd number) will be a force card.

If Tom names an even number: As the first ten cards are counted, they are pushed to

the right. Pushing the fifth card reveals the previously hidden sixth card (which, while positioned slightly to the right, does not look out of place). The sixth card is counted, and the count proceeds down to the named even number.

Regardless of which procedure is used, when the card at the named number is reached, it is pushed forward and the spread is separated at that point. “Andy, you’re thinking of a card, and both Tom and I turned our heads away as you thought of one. The deck was spread out on the table before Tom named his number; I could not have manipulated anything. Fortunately, the talisman did all the work. If you had wanted a smaller number we would have

ended on this card. (Show the card just to the right of the push-out force card. It will be an indifferent card. Replace it.) If you had wanted a larger number we would have ended on this card. (Show the card just to the left of the push-out force card. It will be an indifferent card. Replace it.) What card are you thinking of?”

Andy names his card. The stopped-at card is turned over (side to side). It is his card. The card is turned face down (side to side), replaced into position, and the deck is squared. The trick is done.

Cleaning up: At this point, you can simply gather all the cards (including the Jokers), place them back in the case, and put them away. However, if you want to continue with other card tricks, you are in a position to do Mel Brown's Joker Deck Switch. Pick up the deck and put it in the case, leaving the Jokers on the table. (If you pushed them out the way earlier, it is easy to make the overlooking of them a natural action.) Put the case in the same pocket that has the cased normal deck.

Talk for a moment, and then notice the Jokers. Remove the normal deck from the pocket, remove the deck, add the Jokers, and put the deck back in the case. You can

leave the deck on the table; it is available for the curious to look through or for further effects if you wish to perform them.

Further Ideas: R.D. Michaels has pointed out that the top card of the deck (a force card) will never be involved in the selection process, so it does not have to be corner-shorted. Instead of corner-shorting, R.D. puts a very fine scallop short into the end of the card opposite the orientation mark. R.D. has found that the Optical Shuffle (which is a full-deck false shuffle) works very well for this effect, but the result of that shuffle is that the deck is genuinely cut. Cutting at the scallop short provides an easy way to return the deck to its proper order. (Information on the Optical Shuffle can be found in Giobbi’s Card College Volume 2 or Michael Close’s Closely Guarded Secrets.)

One very strong aspect of the Svenvoo-doo routine is that the procedures of the first phase and the second phase appear identical. However, if you don’t mind having the two phases looking slightly different, there are a couple of alternatives that Bob Farmer has suggested.

First, the marks on the backs of the force cards can be elaborated on to reveal both the suit and value of the indifferent cards and their locations. Bob accom-plishes this by erasing three small circles on the backs of the force cards. One circle contains the value, one contains the suit, and the third contains the location. The reader is urged to develop a marking system that suits his or her purpose. R.D. Michaels suggests that if you already work with a memorized deck, use cards one to twenty-six in your stack as the indifferent cards. The marks described in the write-up above give you all the info you need; just divide the number you see by two – this is the stack number of the card the spectator is looking at.

Second, if you prefer not to use the side-jogged card idea, Bob suggests using an idea from David Berglas. Do not spread the deck on the table before Tom names his number; keep the deck squared. If Tom names an even number, then spread the deck. If he names an odd number, have Andy give the deck a cut. He keeps cutting until a force card (which you’ll recognize because it’s marked) shows up on top. Then spread the deck and continue.

Copyright 2007 Every Trick In The Book Inc. Readers of M-U-M may make up decks for their personal use. All commercial manufacturing and distribu-tion rights reserved.


Photo 9

Photo 10

As we continue to study shows by today’s finest magicians, this month I will focus on one for the general public by Juan Tamariz.

Juan presented this show in October 2004 as part of my Theory and Art of Magic program. During his visit, he also gave a lecture for magicians and a public lecture about the nature of magic as an art form. However, listing it this way is a bit dry; what Juan really did was “bring down the house” at every event, transforming hardened magicians into giddy laymen and uncommitted laymen into passionate fans of magic. Tamariz is a master of our art.

An Evening with Juan Tamariz, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, 7:30 p.m., October 6, 2004.

act i1. Comedy Cut and Restored Rope:

Juan displays a small piece of rope, throws it away, and takes out three small pieces. He throws them away, takes out one piece with knots, and then throws that away and removes a small piece of rope. Big laughs, plays fast.

2. Six-Card Repeat: Six cards handed out for examination; Juan throws away three and counts six three times. He throws away three and counts – only three (laughs). He then counts ten!

3a. Juan brings a woman on stage, saying he has a card in his pocket as a pre-diction. She selects an audience member who calls out a card. The woman removes that exact card from Juan’s pocket.

3b. Holding the card she has just removed, the woman names a different card; the card she is holding is now the card she just named.

3c. Mnemonicosis: Another woman uses her cell phone to call a friend, who names a card. The woman goes to the deck, which was set on the table before the card was named, and spells J-U-A-N-T-A-M-A-R-I-Z. The next card is the named card.

4. Seven women line up on stage opposite seven men. Music plays and

dancing ensues with Juan orchestrating the merriment. The women are given red cards; the men black ones. The black cards are mixed, collected, and held by one man. By random number, two women reveal their cards; the red cards are collected and held by a third woman. Juan dances the two women over to the men’s side. The red cards are counted: there are only five; the black cards are counted: there are nine – two of them are the randomly selected red cards.

5. Cut and Restored Handkerchief: Borrowing objects from the audience, Juan cuts a handkerchief and magically restores it. A participant cuts another handker-chief, but can’t restore it. Using a “magic pendulum,” the participant succeeds.

[During intermission the stage is reset with a small table with three chairs and a camera aiming down on the tabletop.]

act ii6. Juan delivers a brief monologue on

close-up card magic in Spain. Juan seats a man and a woman on each side of him.

7. The Secret of Magic: The man looks at a card (Three of Diamonds). Trying to locate it, Juan only comes up with the Two of Diamonds. Going for a “save,” Juan uses the Ace of Diamonds to create an illusion of the Three (laughter); then the Two magically transforms into the Three of Diamonds.

8. Ambitious Cards, using cards named by each participant.

9. The Centaurs (performed to music).10. “This next piece is in honor of one

of my teachers – Dai Vernon.” After a short monologue on Vernon, Juan performs a version of Triumph in which a participant names a card, mixes the cards face-up and facedown, and the card is revealed as the single face-up card in the deck. Juan repeats these actions, and then shows the deck is in new deck order.

11. A short, fast closer: Juan shows four blue-backed cards; they instantly become four face-up Fours, which instantly become four face-up Aces, and then Juan turns them over to reveal four different backs. Juan receives a standing ovation!

What a show! In the intermission, and afterwards, the energy was so high the place was a riot. A big reason for this was how hilarious Juan was – manic gestures, noises and screaming, funny lines, running

shtick.Yet the magic was unbelievably strong,

absolutely fooling, and for magicians, too. Part of Juan’s great achievement – something he and I discussed – is his careful work to keep the humor from inter-fering with the magic effect. The result of this is the totally distinctive character of a Juan Tamariz show: high laughter and wild play interwoven with some of the strongest magic on the planet.

After the show I asked Juan how he decides upon a show order. He said that his violin case, which he brings on stage, holds a number of different pieces for different “slots.” (That is, it contains a few “first slot” pieces, “second slot” pieces, and so on.) Juan said he chooses some of the pieces in advance, but the rest are called “in show” as he sees how it develops.

When I asked what these different slots represented, he said first slot pieces don’t have much, or any, magic; they are fast and allow him to establish his manic character. Second slot pieces have additional magic in them, but again his emphasis is to lock in the fun. But he said the third slot is essential for the show; this is when he wants to perform a sequence so strong it will “slay the logical bull” – the part of the mind that is stubbornly trying to figure out what is going on.

In this show, the “bull killer” was the three-phase named-card revelations (3a, 3b, and 3c above). Trust me; by the end of that sequence “the bull” was dead, espe-cially for magicians (because in October 2004 Juan’s book Mnemonica was largely unread).

Incidentally, Juan says after the logical bull is slain, you can do just about anything, because the audience has released their resistance. So in this show, Juan brought fourteen people on stage for music and dancing. But when it was time for the magic to happen, there was no fooling around; I have studied the performance many times and I have no clue how Juan got those two red cards across!

So here is my take-away thought for your own show building. Do you have a logical bull killer? Where exactly is it placed in your show? Is that the best slot? What we learn from Master Juan is that having this kind of piece in your show is important so people can let go, have fun, and ride the “Magic Rainbow.”


By Larry Hass

Building A Show


COMPETE IN THE S.A.M. CONTESTS OF MAGIC

AT THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

JULY 3-6, 2013

There are two contests: The Dr. Paul Critelli Close-Up Magic Contest and The Father Cyprian Murray Stage Magic Contest. You may apply for either or both.

If you would like to be considered for this event, your first step is to obtain an application packet. To do this, email me at: [email protected] with “S.A.M. – Contest” in the subject line. Please make sure to include your email and your full name, regular postal address, and your phone number. If you do not have access to email, send your request to:

Paul Critelli858 Iroquois SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49506

All application packets will be made available electronically or sent out on or after January 7, 2013.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING DEADLINES:

* All requests for an application packet must be in my possession by or sent on or before May 20, 2013.

* All applications and DVDs must be online as instructed in the application packet by June 3, 2013.

* Do not put any act online or send it to me in any form before you read and complete and submit the application form.

Good Luck!

Paul Critelli Chairperson – Contest of MagicSociety of American Magicians

http://www.leventmagic.com

LATEST PRODUCT REvIEWSCompiled and Edited by W. S. Duncan

INFORMED OPINION


ConfidenCes BookBy RoBeRto GioBBiAvailable from: www.HermeticPress.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $47.00

REVIEW BY ANTONIO M. CABRAL

Roberto Giobbi’s writing tends to make me hungry. In his latest book, Confidences, he likens a performance of magic to a five-to-seven-course meal, in which no element is treated as less important or with less passion than any other, from the amuse-bouches to the main course to the petits fours. Elsewhere, he describes the way he treats the exposi-tory phase of a trick as “like the lighting of a good cigar; not too long, not too short,

but just right.” Giobbi has gourmet tastes in and outside of magic, and the material offered in Confidencesis presented in the hope that the student will savor the details.

This is Giobbi’s first major book to not feature any real struc-tured format, unlike the Card College series or Secret Agenda. Instead, he simply offers a handful of tricks of varying scope, and some very intriguing essays. The first offering, The Deck of Missed Opportunities, is an ungimmicked version of the classic card effect Fred, (the performer predicts the name written on the back of a selected card) and serves as an object lesson in how to turn such a trick into a presentational showpiece. Giobbi also offers some interesting thoughts on how to handle the required equivoque that some might find of use, even if they never employ it in this particular context. It’s those elements that always make Giobbi’s books an enjoyable read for me (a hallmark of many of my favorite teachers in magic). His Overture for the Cups and Balls contains many standard elements, for example, but it’s less about the moves and devices and more about the routining – the hows and whys of everything blending together. The Trick That Andy Warhol Could Have Explained is a presentational approach to Dai Vernon’s classic exercise (The Trick That Can’t Be Explained) that gives the trick a solid and consistent ending. That and Giobbi’s tips on handling the “selection” process might find this trick a home in a few previously more cautious repertoires. The Card in the Mirror of the Mind is a novel and quite beautiful card revelation, in which a chosen card appears only in the face of a mirror. It takes a simple card trick and turns it into something bordering on the sublime. The so-called “minor tricks,” even if you never perform them, contain a thoughtfulness many perform-

ers don’t put into their major tricks. As Giobbi quotes a Portu-guese poet, “The full moon is reflected in the large ocean, but also in the smallest puddle.”

The tricks, however, might be the least interesting part of the book. There are two large essays, one theoretical and one analytical. The former is an exploration of what actually goes into controlling a card. Card magic fans are well-familiar with the annoying old platitude “use your favorite method,” and in many cases controlling a selection is treated as a boring, “get it over with” necessity en route to the whiz-bang fun part, i.e. the end of the trick. I’m told the late Bob Stencel observed that card magicians had given up on the “mystery of the lost card.” While it may be true that audiences are more concerned with how you go about finding the card, it’s undeniable that they’re more impressed if they have the sense that the card is genuinely out of your control in the first place. In Card College, Giobbi made mention of a principle introduced by Ronald Wohl, in which the perceived amount of freedom a spectator has in choosing a card should be the same amount of freedom he has in returning it. In Confidences, Giobbi expands the lesson to over seventy pages, with concrete examples. For serious students of card magic, it’s an extremely worthwhile study, and should lead to marked improve-ment in people’s opinions of your card tricks.

The other large essay is Giobbi’s introduction to The Expert at the Card Table, originally written for the German translation of the book. It begins with some historical analysis, and moves on to a selection of favorite items, notes, and touches from the book. Erdnase has developed a bit of a cult following these days, and has been revived as a classic – in the Mark Twain “a book everyone praises but no one reads” sense. Giobbi’s essay reads like a miniature Annotated Erdnase, and is a welcome addition to the English-language canon on the subject.

Confidences feels like a lighter offering from Roberto Giobbi, but as he states about lighter offerings in general, it’s delivered with no less importance, passion, or attention. I am, have been, and remain a big fan. If you’ve enjoyed his previous books, you’ll want this one, too.

PeRfoRmanCe on tRial BookBy JosePh CuRCilloAvailable from: www.PerformanceOnTrial.comPrice $39.95

REVIEW BY JOSHuA KANE

Joseph Curcillo is a trial lawyer with a passion for, and a high level of participation in, the field of mystery arts. In the mentalism

This is one of those months that make me happy to be doing this work. The best thing about editing this column is that occasionally I can bring to your attention something worthwhile or different. In a world made up of card tricks, this can be a pretty rare situation. This month, we’re spoiled for choice. You’ll find a great book on magic theory (with a few card tricks thrown in) from Roberto Giobbi, an old principle updated (in Spheres), a great DVD for you to recommend to laymen friends when they ask where they can learn a few tricks, a couple of historical offerings, and something really different. My predecessor, Richard Hatch, has published a children’s book. Check out Jim Kleefeld’s review of Taro-San the Fisherman and the Weeping Willow Tree.


world his character of “Joey the See,” the mentalist for the mob, is a convention favorite. I first heard Joey deliver this material as a lecture, and I am pleased that it is available to the magic-buying public as a well produced hardcover book. With an introduction by Marc Salem and a preface by Bob Fitch, it is no surprise that this is a noteworthy volume.

Performance On Trial is an explo-ration of the craft of performance, as applied to the mystery arts, through the lens and experience of a trial lawyer.

Curcillo himself avows that he is untrained as an actor, and it is clear that when it comes to communicating with his audience, he draws his inspiration from Aristotle and the practice of law rather than from contemporary Stanislavskian theater teachers. He ef-fectively asserts that the preparation of an attorney bargaining for a client’s life requires the diligent preparation of the best of per-formers, that owning the information is not enough, that one has to have the facility to maintain balance among the unexpected. I agree.

Curcillo writes as he speaks, with volubility and self-ascribed verbosity. This is a well articulated case, populated with clari-fying anecdotes and nuggets of wisdom from a successful trial lawyer’s education and trade. It is an entertaining read, and like a Dan Brown novel one walks away not only having been enter-tained but with an unexpected education and a questing desire to expand upon and apply the thought processes and questions that the book has raised. The book encourages active discussion and arguments while reading it; one would be hard pressed not to improve their act by applying Curcillo’s tests and strategies. You will walk away having picked up more than a smattering of Latin and will be able to populate future conversations with an understanding of lawyers’ cant. This well executed argument that performing on stage is like being a trial lawyer will hopefully encourage many to dip outside of the traditional arenas of per-formance education and engage in their own inclusive reflection and journeys of “performing magic is like .” Fans of Ken Weber’s Maximum Entertainment and Darwin Ortiz’s Designing Miracles will find this volume to be meat for their table. Curcillo makes a compelling argument; assemblies would do well to have a copy of this volume on their shelves or engage him for a lecture.

Ray Goulet – ReColleCtions of a RenaissanCe man BookBy fRank dudGeon with ann GouletAvailable from: http://www.magicartstudio.comPrice $65.00

REVIEW BY PAYNE

Recently, a plethora of magic biogra-phies have been released to the market. Perhaps the term “plethora” is a bit hy-perbolic, because there have only been four or five volumes of such a nature to come across my desk as of late. Compara-tively though, this is a greater number of books of a biographical nature than I can recall having been released to the magic community in such a short span of time.

This latest book is a handsome volume

devoted to Ray Goulet, who with his wife Ann performed as The Raymonds. It is a curious book, especially when compared to the other biographies that I have had the pleasure to read (the greater number of which have been autobiographies in which the author has written a series of remembrances and anecdotes more or less in chronological order). But whether they were personally penned memoires or ancillary authored biographies, the one thing they all had in common is that the majority of the material in the book was devoted to the person said book claimed to be about.

This is not so much the case with this volume; it is less about Mr. Goulet than it is about the world that has come to form around him. The actual portion of the narrative concerning his life and career in magic comprises just the first thirty-three pages of this book. This is probably a good thing, because The Raymond’s per-forming history seems to have been rather pedestrian. While they did have a very successful career and were able to carve a niche for themselves in the world of entertainment when magic was at its nadir in the 1950s and ‘60s, they don’t seem to have had many adventures or broken new ground in the world of show business. So if you’re looking for a book detailing the rollicking adventures of a magician touring the globe in search of fame and fortune, this is not the book for you.

But fortunately, as I have already mentioned, this book really isn’t about Mr. Goulet. After his retirement from show business in the Eighties, he settled down in Massachusetts and opened the Magic Art Studio. It is from this point forward that the book gets interesting. The Magic Art Studio isn’t so much of a shop as it is a focal point for the magic community. From reading the book, the Studio seems to be more akin to Gertrude Stein’s Salon in Paris than your run-of-the-mill magic shop. It is where the greats and near-greats of magic either assemble, or eventually pass by. It is here we meet Cesareo Pelaez of Le Grande David fame and learn of Mr. Goulet’s involvement in that extraordinary show. It is through this shop that Gazzo was able to meet Walter Scott, which would eventually lead to him to write (with David Britland) the classic text on card sharps, Phantoms of the Card Table.

It is also through the Magic Art Studio that Mr. Goulet was able to enhance his true love, the collecting of magic. This is the main focus of this book, as well as the reason for it to be so exquisitely produced and lavished with so many color pictures and illustrations. It really is a tome devoted to the collecting of vintage magic equipment and ephemera. The chapters devoted to Mr. Goulet’s collecting reads like a who’s who of this exclusive and often secretive world. We get to read about the various other collectors Mr. Goulet has encountered, as well as the focal points of their collections. So if you are a collector of magic apparatus, books, and posters, or if you are just interested in collecting, you’re going to love this book. It’s filled with page after page of pictures of Mr. Goulet’s collection. There are few who can flip through the pages without either experiencing awe or envy – or possibly both.

This book is definitely a labor of love; it is one of the most lavish books on magic to come out in a while. No expense was spared in the production of this fine volume. Ray Goulet – Recollections of a Renaissance Man is definitely worth a read.

taRo-san the fisheRman and the weePinG willow tRee BookBy RiChaRd hatCh Available from: www.HatchAcademy.comPrice $14.95

REVIEW BY JIM KLEEFELD


And now for something completely different. De-ceptionist, editor, translator, and former bookshop owner Richard Hatch has now become a children’s author with his first picture book for youngsters. It is a beautiful and well-crafted story about a Japanese boy who grows up to become a great fisherman. The illustrations are gorgeous and the story is wonderful. After an initial

reading, my nine-year-old neighbor spontaneously exclaimed, “Excellent!”

The story of Taro-San evolved from Hatch’s presentation of the tamasudare, a kind of woven mat that can be configured into many different designs. Think of it as an Eastern Troublewit. Tama-sudare is often seen performed by street magicians at festivals in Japan. In the US, few magicians know of it or perform it, probably rightly so, because it requires a deft touch to both change the mat’s shape many times and to make up a competent reason for doing so. Martin Lewis and Ken Scott have excellent presentations, and now Richard Hatch does as well. While twisting and turning the mat into such shapes as a house, a temple, a boat, a fishing pole, a fish, and a willow tree, he narrates the story of a young boy who loves to sit and fish under a willow tree. The boy grows up, acquires a boat, and becomes a master fisherman thanks to sage advice from a mentor. The story makes wonderful sense of the many tamasudare figures formed, but also stands alone as a great tale, which is where this book comes in.

The actual written story is not only touching, it is also well-worded and evenly paced. Hatch found a great artist to craft wonderful illustrations in a traditional Japanese style that fits the words perfectly. The text is printed in both English and Japanese, but the kanji is artfully blended into the illustrations so it does not stand out or detract from the mood of the book. Although my Japanese is far from excellent, it feels like the translation is very poetic and serves the story well. Maybe that’s why it was nominated for a Utah Book Award.

Buy this book. It is not exactly magic, because you do not get the tamasudare mat with the book, nor see any presentations of it (although there are plenty of videos of performances to be found online). But it is a great book, written by a great magician, and it is related to his magic. Read it to a young person in your life. Save it on your shelf for special occasions. It will be well worth the minor investment for the serene and happy moments you and any children share with it. You can get it on Amazon, CreateSpace, or Revizzit, but I suggest you order it directly from Richard’s website, HatchAcademy, and ask him to autograph it for you.

eveRythinG i know aBout maRketinG maGiC BookBy maxwell muRPhyDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $39.95


Maxwell Murphy was one of the founding partners of Penguin Magic. He tells us that his key role in the partnership was marketing; and regardless of your perspective about the battle between brick-and-mortar stores vs. Internet dealers, his work has clearly made the black bird a success. At 228 pages, this

fluff-free volume contains the kind of information that is only learned by real-time marketplace experience. If you have ever wanted to bring a trick or a product to market into the limited market of the magic world or to understand how the “sorcerial” sausage is made, then this book is for you. It is all here, from a detailed analysis of the magic market and its type of customers to insider sources for the manufacturing of your items.

Contacts for distribution and reviews of your products are also there (though strangely the contact info for M-U-M is absent). The focus of Ev-erything I Know about Marketing Magic is on the marketing of prop tricks and trick-related videos. Short shrift is given to magic books; and Chris Wasshuber from Lybrary.com would probably be surprised to read Murphy’s comments that ebooks have not historically sold well. Detailed analysis is given to the roles of many key players in the retail process, as well as to honest breakdowns of the

different kinds of value one obtains from advertising and how to maximize your returns. As a business book, this is an exceptional value. The information inside Everything I Know about Marketing Magic, if sold as part of a two-day seminar, could easily have been sold (justifiably) at a much higher price.

CaRd dodGeRy BookBy J.k. haRtmanAvailable from: www.VanishingIncMagic.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $40.00

REVIEW BY MARC DESOuzA

J.K. Hartman began self-publish-ing a number of card manuscripts back in the early to mid ʼ70s. He stopped publishing for a while, but picked up again in the early ʼ90s, now producing rather large tomes filled with lots of great magic for the “card-nocenti” among us. This new offering is a first-rate book on card magic that will find favor with any magician with a love for the pasteboards. It has been beauti-fully produced by Vanishing Inc. The book is conveniently divided into five

sections. I tried out every item with deck in hand, and found many items that are real winners.

The first section contained several original sleights. Although an interesting read, I didn’t find anything that will replace any of the moves currently in my arsenal. The second section, Shows of Hands, was my favorite chapter. Some of the highlights are Suggestion Box, Boxsome Beauty, Pig Out, Johns and Jills, One Down, Two to Go, Three to the Fourth Power, 4’11̓ ,̓ Set-Two II, Invisibull, and Laughing Ass. Although all of these are variations on previously published effects of others, Hartman’s work on all of them is very worthy of publication.

The third section, Gamed Games, had two really outstanding routines. Hand Shake is a variation on a Martin Nash poker deal routine that is very fair looking, relying on subtlety, not sleights.


Poker Face-Off II is a variation on one of Hartman’s own effects. Here, the premise is a demonstration of reading poker tells. It is in the “impossible location” genre, but seems to have great com-mercial potential.

The fourth section, Mixed Minds, has a general theme of cards and colors. There are several routines that I liked here. Difference Maker is an interesting handling for the classic Out of This World, based on a John Kennedy idea. Cutting a Deal is a very direct and easy handling for the Open Prediction theme. Mix and Match is Hartman’s treatment of a Boris Wild routine. It is a two-deck coincidence that is very powerful. Sleight of Handle is a handling of Marlo’s Uncontrolled Prediction that, again, has the feel of an Open Prediction-type of effect. It is relatively simple with a direct handling. If you like Simon Aronson’s Shuffle-Bored and all of its variants that have appeared over the years, you need to check out Simple Simon. It is a small touch, but I think this is a really good presentation piece. The small amount of work required is far outweighed by its effectiveness on an audience.

The final section is a short interview with Hartman. He is something of a recluse and does not actively participate in either magic clubs or conventions. I really wanted to learn a little more about him. He has produced an amazing output of card magic in the last forty years and is one of the real unsung heroes of the genre. Although, as mentioned earlier, most of the routines are variants of the work of others, most of them are fine additions to our magical literature. I am most impressed by the variety of material here as well. If you like the study of card magic, as well as performing magic, this book is a must. At 283 pages of real meat and very little fluff, it is great value for the money. Highly recommended.

Cool kid show maGiC BookBy noRm BaRnhaRtAvailable from: http://NormBarnhart.aces-show.biz/Price $25.00

REVIEW BY PAYNE

Norm Barnhart is a funny guy. Norm Barnhart is a funny guy who also does kid show magic. Norm Barnhart wants to help you be funny, too – especially those of you who do kid show magic. To help you achieve this, Norm Barnhart has written a book, Comedy Kid Show Magic: The Comedy Magic of Norm Barnhart. Norm Barnhart also didn’t think I could mention his name six times in the first paragraph of this review.

In the 129 pages of Comedy Kid Show Magic you will find over eighty effects, tips, tricks, routines, stunts, suggestions, and ideas. That’s collectively, not singly. So there should be something in this book for everybody. None of the effects are complicated and should be within the reach of nearly every performer, regardless of their skill level. Some of them do require specialized props. But apart from the Duck Bucket, these should be in the inventory of nearly every working kid show performer out there. After all, who among us doesn’t own at least one dove pan?

It is important to note that these routines are Norm’s. It’s not that he isn’t willing to share them with us; it’s just that some of them will need to be customized to fit your style and personality.

But you will have endless fun paging through this book, either working out ways to fit his routines into your act, or using his ideas as springboards for routines and bits of your very own. I know a trick inspired by his Card in Blender routine is going to work its way into my repertoire.

There’s a reason you’ll find this book in the libraries of top kid show workers like Ken Scott, Jimmy Carlo, and Steve Kissell. Shouldn’t you add a copy of it to your magic library as well?

maGiC made easy dvdBy Johnny thomPsonAvailable from: www.llpub.comPrice: $34.95

REVIEW BY DAVID GOODSELL

Do you have a friend who has expressed an interest in learning magic?

Perhaps you are new to magic and have only recently joined the S.A.M. This DVD by Johnny Thompson, and released by L&L Publishing, is one of the better

“beginners” offerings of recent years. Why? First, the magician

is Johnny Thompson, who performs with charm and gentle humor, and who

can make even the simplest stunt entertain-ing. Is every item a fooler? Not really, the one-handed

knot, for example, is a juggling stunt. But performed by Johnny, it is fun to watch. The point is that even with these beginning tricks, timing, misdirection, and presentation are important and Johnny Thompson has command of all three and more. Second, Johnny is performing these tricks for real people in the L&L studio. Your magician friends probably know how most of these are done, but your family and friends outside of magic do not, and you will see how “realˮ people enjoy these tricks. Third, Michael Ammar – like Johnny, one of magic’s most acclaimed performers – is the host for Johnny’s explanations, so you get the benefit of insights from two professionals as they chat about these tricks.

Twenty tricks are performed and explained on this DVD. Here are a few of the effects: The magician locates a chosen card in his pocket by touch. A card is chosen and returned to the deck. The performer slides a Queen through the deck and “listens” as the Queen tells him the name of the chosen card. The performer and a spectator, each with a deck of cards, select one card. They turn out to be the same card. The performer is handed one of several crayons behind his back. He is able to determine the color of the crayon. The performer threads one end of a length of rope through a loop held in his other hand instantaneously. He then cuts and restores the length of rope. A card is selected and the performer determines the name of the card by asking a few questions, to which the spectator can either lie or tell the truth. If you have been in magic any length of time these themes likely sound familiar. Although they are basic, they are classic beginning tricks. They are easy to do and can be mastered quickly; they can be presented in an entertaining manner (go ahead and use Johnny as your model); they will fool most people and entertain even those who think they know what is going on (and often don’t).

Finally, here’s a bonus: John is a master of the Malini Egg Bag, one of magic’s classic parlor tricks. The DVD ends with a performance-only routine that you will enjoy. If the egg bag is not in your arsenal, you might seek it out based on this


performance alone.This material was released in VHS format by L&L quite a few

years ago. Johnny Thompson looks the same (he always does), but you will notice that Michael Ammar’s hair is a bit blonder on this DVD than when last seen. But this is the first time this material has appeared on DVD, and like all really good magic, it is not dated. Magic Made Easy is a great place to find half a dozen tricks for your fifteen-minute dinner table performance.

kaRRell fox the leGend dvdBy kaRRell foxAvailable from: www.LLPub.comPrice $34.95

REVIEW BY NORMAN BECK

I do not like to use the word “legend,” but in this case it fits the bill.

Karrell Fox is a legend among magicians; he was known for his close-up, comedy, and platform work. I never knew him, or met him, but I just spent last night

with him while watching this in-structional DVD. I can tell you two

things for certain: I would be a better magician if I had know him, and he

was super smart. The only real complaint I have about the DVD is that it’s not longer.

Mr. Fox teaches fourteen effects, and he fooled me at least ten of the fourteen times with simple methods and direct effects. I can tell you that he wanted to fool and entertain you, while not working too hard on the actual method. Mr. Fox gives great advice on this DVD, and once again nothing is hard. These are lessons that will come easily to the attentive student.

I will only give you one effect to whet your appetite. A predic-tion inside an envelope is displayed. A helpful spectator sticks the envelope anyplace in the deck; the prediction inside the envelope matches the card cut to. I cannot tell you how good and how direct this is; there are thirteen more effects that are just as direct. Please do yourself a favor and pick this up, if you do, you will become a fan of The Legend, too.

PeteR Pit: memoRies dvdfRom the leCtuRe netwoRk aRChiveshosted By Jeff hoBsonAvailable from: http://www.MiracleFactory.net/Price $24.95

REVIEW BY PAYNE

Back in 2007, Jeff Hobson and Loren Christopher Michaels launched an ambitious project called The Lecture Network. It was a noble effort, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to see and participate in lectures given by world-class magicians. It was an idea that was ahead of its time and unfortunately (for reasons, many of which were beyond the control of all those involved in the project) met with an untimely demise. But as they say, “for every door that closes another one opens.” The Lecture Network was left with a great deal of digital content, much of which is finally being released to the market by Todd Carr’s The Miracle Factory.

The most recent release is Peter Pit: Memories. Since Mr. Pit died nearly a decade before the launch of The Lecture Network,

this is a performance-only DVD – a tribute disc to a unique and innovative performer. Pit was an artist whose work lives on in his signature effect, the Dancing Cane. While not the originator of this effect, he did much to bring it to the forefront of magic.

He was one of the few magicians who managed to make multiple appearances on American television, and when he did he was often seen performing the Dancing Cane. It is because of him that the effect became the centerpiece of my (thankfully short lived) classic magician phase.

Having such fond memories of Mr. Pit’s work, I was looking forward to watching this DVD. Unfortunately I was in for a letdown. Apart from a too long section from some 1970s televi-sion special in which Mr. Pit (as well as

Dai Vernon) is forced to work with an inane rabbit puppet, the content of the DVD is quite good. However, the quality of the disc leaves much to be desired. All of the video is grainy, degraded, and of low quality. Even the opening segment where Jeff Hobson welcomes us all to the DVD is low res and heavily pixilated. While it is wonderful to see Mr. Pit perform, he deserves better than this. I certainly hope that better recordings of his perfor-mances exist somewhere. Otherwise this is a terrible loss to the magic community.

Those wishing to see Peter Pit’s performances (and who can put up with the horrible quality of these recordings) are in for a treat. This disc spans his career. It starts with early black-and-white footage of him performing his signature Dancing Cane routine as well as the Multiplying Bottles. We also get to see (in color from here on out) more Dancing Cane, his vanishing cracker stand-up routine, the Pom-Pom Stick, Chase the Ace, and More Water. Since there are no attributes given for any of the videos, it is impossible to say exactly when and where any of the footage first appeared. I assume that the later videos of him doing Shorty and The Pit Sit are from The Magic Castle, but there is no way to be sure. Even the later recordings, which look to have been filmed shortly before his death, suffer from video degradation and bad transfer.

I think only the most diehard fan would be willing to put up with the low quality of this DVD, which is sad. For all Peter Pit gave to the world of magic, he deserves better than this.

essentials in maGiC – sPonGe Balls dvdBy daRylAvailable from: www.Daryl.netDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesRetail Price $9.95

REVIEW BY JAMIE SALINAS

Daryl is a great all-around magician, who can perform a wide variety of magic. Whether you are a seasoned pro or a beginning magician, the manipulation of sponge balls is a great skill to possess; it uses the core moves for many sleight-of-hand effects. As the title of this DVD indicates, Daryl covers the essentials of sponge ball magic.

The DVD is in the traditional format: a demo in a studio setting, followed by detailed explanations complete with credits when appropriate. Daryl is not only a great performer; he is also a great teacher. He provides clear, concise details so that you not


only learn the mechanics of the effect but why it works as well. Complete

routines, concealments, steals, productions, retention passes, transportations, and many other sleights are covered. There is a lot of information covered on

this DVD, including tips for many of the sleights.

Despite the fact that I have been performing close-up magic for over

twenty-five years, I was able to get a lot of new information about sponge ball magic from this DVD,

one of many in a series of essential DVDs produced by Murphy’s Magic. Whether you are new to magic or a seasoned veteran of close-up magic, you will no doubt benefit from this instructional DVD. Many of the sleights are not too difficult to learn and are easy to master for the beginning magician. The $9.95 price makes this DVD a great buy and a must-have for the close-up performer!

stitChed dvd and GimmiCk mateRialsBy alexandeR kölleDistributed by Murphy’s Magic Supplies Price $35.00


Ripped jeans were a big thing when I was in junior high/high school, and

apparently they’re a big thing again. Meanwhile, I’ve started wearing jackets and ties on a casual basis, which means I’m probably not the target market

for Stitched. Then again, if you’re fashion-forward enough to wear

jeans with a jacket and tie (and I am), you might find a place for this effect in

your repertoire.Stitched isn’t a showpiece by any means.

Instead, it’s a very Paul Harris-y minor demonstration of your magical powers, one of those “moments of astonishment” to be thrown in at any given time. The basic idea is that you look down and “suddenly” discover that you have a tear in the leg of your jeans, about an inch or so long. So, to fix it, you simply wave or rub the tear, and it magically vanishes, leaving your pant leg and dignity intact. Or, if you’re not big on dignity, Stitched suggests you could actually have an audience member cover the tear with his hand, rub, and make it vanish. It puts the magic in his hands, in more ways than one.

If you’ve ever wondered how you could convince someone to rub your thigh in the middle of a performance, you have your answer. From there, it’s literally a short step to getting him to put his hand in your pocket, and then the sky’s the limit.

The questionable act of inviting that kind of frottage aside, Stitched looks very good (at least on camera). It’s going to take some arts and crafts work on your part to create the necessary gimmick, because it thoughtfully comes with a range of skin tones to make it look like your own flesh is poking through the tear in the denim. I suppose that means your mileage may vary on how convincing the thing is going to look in practice. Essentially, you’re wearing a fake tear on your pants that is then rigged so you can magically make it vanish with a wave or rub of your fingers.

Stitched comes with all the necessary supplies and very detailed instruction on the DVD on how to construct the gimmick. It also gives you a handful of ways to cause the vanish, some of which may suit your style better than others. Once the gimmick is con-structed, the effect and its execution are very straightforward – most intermediate magicians should be able to make this effect work.

As for who might use this and where, I think the best user isn’t someone who wears ripped or pre-ripped jeans in the first place. First of all, if you really cared, you wouldn’t wear ripped jeans. Second, it makes no sense to repair a single, small tear in your jeans and leave all the others. On the other end of the fashion spectrum, while Stitched suggests that you could make a gimmick to match a pair of dress pants, I don’t think that’s the way to go, either. You end up looking like the kind of person who would walk up to a group of strangers with a noticeably torn pair of dress pants, which doesn’t create a great impression. (Arguably, your “solution” might change that impression.) However, the ideal situation would be a nice pair of casual jeans, un-torn except for the single blemish. It’s conceivable that the tear could be pur-poseful, but your reaction to it and the subsequent miracle cure let people know you’re the sort who has extraordinary solutions to ordinary problems. This could conceivably make a very nice icebreaker in the right casual dress atmosphere.

If you regularly find yourself performing in nice jeans and don’t mind some arts and crafts, you might be interested in making Stitched an offhanded part of your repertoire. And if you really want to make a lasting impression, make sure you hand your pants out as a souvenir at the end of your performance. That way, they’ll remember you, not just your magic.

sPheRes dvd and GimmiCkBy manuel llaseRAvailable from: www.VernetMagic.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $38.00

REVIEW BY DANNY ARCHER

This ninety-minute DVD from Vernet Magic was filmed in Spanish, but you can also watch it dubbed into English. Sound and pictures are fine and the magician is Manuel Llaser, who performs in a formal close-up show setting. Some of the jokes are probably lost with the dubbing, but that in no way diminishes the material

or the learning process. I do wish that the DVD menu had a “Play All” option. At the end of every trick you are returned to the menu and have to select the next effect, which is not as user friendly as it could have been.

All of the effects that are shown involve playing cards, and all rely on a certain method that is supplied along with a gimmick. I am trying to be cagey to protect the secret, as the underlying principle is quite old. I know that this principle was used by Vernon and Leipzig and certainly predates them. What the producers have done is updated the substance used so that it works better; they have also provided a more convenient way to carry and use the substance. Basically, the substance allows the spectator to select a card, return it to the deck, and square the deck. The performer can now locate the selected card without the use of sleight of hand.


The six effects explained (more are discussed in the bonus interview section) are all card revelations. The first effect, called The Liar, allows you to tell when two spectators lie about the name of their cards. A third spectator deals through the deck and lies about the name of a single card, at which point the performer instantly stops him. This uses a partly memorized deck. Another effect has the card selected and returned; the deck is placed on the floor. Using a putter and a golf ball, the performer hits the ball at the deck and the deck separates at the selected card. A similar revelation using a yo-yo is also explained. Another classic effect is performed and explained in which the cards are placed on the floor and the performer kicks the deck, which splits at the selected card. I liked the Haunted Pack idea in the bonus section, which does not use a thread, but uses the substance and another simple gimmick. This is not practical for strolling, but would be a killer for a stand-up show.

Most of the effects (but not all) can be done with other methods. The holder and substance are well made, work great, and are a genuine improvement over other older methods of accomplishing these types of effects. No mention is made about getting more of the substance supplied, but I assume Vernet will be selling refills. The effects are strong and easy to do, so I am guessing that this would be best for beginning to intermediate magicians. Knowing that Vernon and Leipzig made effective use of this principle leads me to believe that any magician worth his salt will have a lot to think about and will have fun playing with Spheres.

suCkeR PeeP one-tRiCk dvdBy maRk wonGAvailable from: http://InsideMagicProductions.com/Distributed by Murphy’s Magic Supplies Retail Price $30.00

REVIEW BY JAMIE SALINAS

As the title suggests, this is a sucker effect designed for the card worker and strolling magician. I

usually do not like to do “sucker effects” for adults, but this one is

more magical than the typical “gotcha” routine. With just a deck of cards and the card box, you will be able to perform this sucker routine for your

spectators.The magician has a card

selected from a shuffled pack, re-membered, and returned to the pack,

which is shuffled and placed back in the box. Despite such fairness, the magician is able

to reveal the selected card by apparently reading the mind of the spectator. The magician offers to explain the trick, revealing that the spectator’s card was actually on the bottom of the deck and the box has a small window cut out that allows the magician to “peep” at the selected card. The deck is removed and the spectator can examine the box and cutout.

The magician offers to perform another card trick, and is seemingly using the same method as was exposed. But the spectator finds that there is no longer a cut-out window in the box; it has vanished. The selected card is found to be in the center of the pack, so even if there was a cutout, the magician would not have been able to “peep” at the selected card. Everything can be once again examined, because there is nothing to be found.

Mark Wong teaches you how to make the gimmick and perform the effect. All of the moves are covered in great detail, making it easy for the beginning to intermediate magician to construct and perform this effect. The gimmick is very deceptive and Mark also teaches a variation of the original handling. Although the second card effect gets lost in the fact that the cutout is gone from the box, the spectators are still left feeling like they have been had.

slide tRiCkBy de’mon & titanasAvailable from: www.PaulHarrisPresents.comDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice $55.00

REVIEW BY DANNY ARCHER

When I opened the package to look at the items I was sent to

review, the text on the cover of Slide (“the First Ever SignedAnimated Restoration”) gave me a moment’s pause; just last month I had reviewed

Animate and Restore by Jesse Feinberg. Both products come

from Paul Harris Presents and both are copyrighted 2012, so I can’t tell

which was the first. But they do animate and restore in totally different ways.

Along with the well-shot DVD, you also receive the gimmick that allows the effect to work. Aside from a few brief comments from the creators, the performances and explanations are done silently with musical accompaniment and text inserts. The basic effect is demonstrated, with the performer removing from his wallet a playing card that has been torn in half. The pieces are held up with the backs towards the viewers. The two pieces are touched together in a misaligned position and the cards cling together. While holding the card with a single hand, one half visibly slides over to align with the other half. The card is folded in half, the crease is massaged, and the card is unfolded; it is now restored.

A signed version is then explained. The card is selected, folded in half, and then the magician and the spectator each sign the card on the back. The card is torn in two and the effect is then the same as the basic version. Another version has the card ripped in two and then restored in a mis-made condition, with half a back and half a face showing. Included are a dozen specially printed mis-made cards. Refills are available. There are variations explained using paper currency, matchbooks, and business cards, but the effect essentially is the same.

Slide looks great, and the gimmick is something you would have never thought of in a million years. It is not that difficult to perform, but there are some angle issues you will need to be aware of. I can see this being done tableside (the reset is minimal), but you would have to work it a little tighter than normal. Because there is no talking on the DVD, you will have to come up with your own presentations (not a bad thing). In my mind, the most useable effects are the signed card and the torn bill, only because I can think of presentations that will work. Why you would tear a card in half and restore it mis-made was a mystery to me. This is a bit pricey for a one-trick DVD, so make sure the effect is something you really want to do. There is no other version on the market that will do what this does; I can recommend this to anyone looking for a unique and visual piece of magic.


hole GimmiCk and dvdBy miChael ChatelainDistributed by Murphy’s Magic Supplies Price $40.00


Michael Chatelain’s Hole is mind-boggling – for all the wrong reasons. The effect is that you join two cards at the end with an initialed sticker, and then penetrate said sticker with a third card. The “hole” from the title is cut in the back of one of the cards so you can watch the middle card escaping. As a trick, it has a “visual novelty” appeal to it, but that’s not what’s

mind-boggling about it. It’s everything else.The trick seems designed with YouTube performance in mind.

In fact, the DVD appears to have been shot entirely on webcam. The “instruction” consists of a complete absence of sound, ac-companied by a lot of frantic miming and waving props at the camera to indicate them. And it comes with what is without a doubt the worst gaffed card I’ve ever seen. The card has a flap that is attached by four protruding magnets that stick out like neck bolts on the Frankenstein monster. There’s no sense in trying to clean up a gaff that screams out its presence as much as this one. Frankly, it’s insulting to the consumer to expect them to pay $40 for something that’s supposed to appear as an ordinary playing card and yet for some reason looks like a Farrah Fawcett poster – particularly when also offering an alternate method with a much better-looking gaff. This doesn’t make the trick any more worth-while, but at least the gaff isn’t a horror show.

The only thing more mind-boggling than how terribly this was executed is the thought that somewhere, someone will buy this and not be disappointed. Don’t be that person.

teaR/no teaR Pad tRiCkBy alan wonG, Routined By seBastien CleRGueDistributed by Murphy’s Magic SuppliesPrice 6” x 8” $12.00, 3.5” x 3.5” $6.50


Alan Wong’s Tear/No Tear Pad is a pad of paper with al-ternating pages that tear and don’t tear. This is a fun device for a Do as I Do Routine, such as the wicked and slightly naughty one penned by Sebastien Clergue. The routine is titled Silent Party. You tell a tale of having attended a Silent Party, also known as a Quiet Party, which is an event where no one speaks; all social

exchange is conducted through brief notes written on a small pad. Some quick online research on Wikipedia credits the events as

having been started in 2002 by artist Paul Rebhan and musician Tony Noe. The social etiquette is that a conversation is encouraged if the recipient of your note writes one back. It is also understood that if the other party is not interested, he or she will tear your note in two. The premise is that you have entered a silent party. In the routine, you write the most outrageous thing you can think of on the note and you hand it to someone who, after a shocked look and a futile attempt to shred your note, is stuck in the position of appearing to acquiesce or approve of your overture. This is a fun item for single events and a bar crowd. It is a joke and a neat spot of humor that could serve as a fun icebreaker.

If you wish to have your product reviewed please send it to:

Bill Duncan P.O. Box 50562

Bellevue, WA 98015-0562


SOMETHING FISHY

Robofish are robotic fish that move around in the water just like real fish. Made by the company Zuru, they have sensors that turn them on when they hit water. They come in a variety of colors and are much easier to take care of than real fish. I can see these used in fishbowl productions and Aerial

Fishing. I found them at CVS stores and online at places like Amazon.com. For around $10, give them a try. I’m sure you will find a use for them.

AIM...FIRE!

An email arrived the other day from Irwin Royes explaining how he uses his Kindle Fire book reader:

“I know the sight of a gun

anytime in a show brings shivers to people. I wanted to do this trick: Someone picks a card and it goes back in the deck. The deck is held over the spectator’s head. You aim a gun and fire it. The selected card is removed from the deck. It has a bullet hole in it.

“I wanted to try this at meetings, but I didn’t want to carry a blank gun. Looking through apps for my Kindle I came across an app called Virtual Guns. You can pick one of three guns. I tried others, but this app was the best. It’s funny to watch the spectators’ faces when they think the card will appear on your Kindle. You turn the Kindle on, only to have a virtual gun appear. The gun is loaded. Sliding your finger over the trigger produces a bang! Of course, you have apparently hit the right card. I find this takes the sting off using a gun of any sort.

“I am not a computer geek, and I know this is nothing earth-shattering, but I thought you might like it.”

This effect can also be done with an iDevice, Android, or Blackberry. A search in the respective app stores will produce a multitude of simulated gun programs.

PICTuRE IN YOuR MIND...

The method behind MindShot will not surprise you. It’s pretty basic. What will please you is the seamless way the app looks: real and not gimmicked. Take a photo of a spectator with your iDevice; the thought-of card appears above his forehead in

the photo. The photo can be saved or shared via Twitter. The instructions for this app are clearly written; fifteen minutes in the practice mode will have you ready for a performance. The instructions also provide many presen-tations and ideas. MindShot is available on the iTunes app store for 99 cents.

CRAzYTALK

This is not a magic program, but I’m sure you’ll find a use for it. If you’ve ever wondered how they get those babies talking in the e-trade commercials, wonder no more. CrazyTalk is a program for Mac

or Windows machines that takes a photo or graphic and animates it with a vocal track. In other words, you can get your rabbit, baby, or cartoon character to say anything you want. What is great about this program is that it is easy to use – no hard programming or frame-by-frame work. Simply line up eyes and mouth, speak what you want, and the program does all the grunt work. See a demo at www.reallusion.com/crazytalk/. The finished product can be shown on an iPad or iPhone. You can download a trial version for free at the website. I know that this will spark all sorts of routines for your shows. CrazyTalk is priced from $29 – $149, depending on the bells and whistles.

Found a cool gadget, app, or website for magic ap-plications? Share your discovery with Bruce to include in a future column. Email him (SAMtalkBruce @cox.net).

http://magicsam.com/presidents-welcome/s-a-m-life-membership/

By George Schindler

steVe teRBOt – “psYchic”

Steve Terbot, an American “psychic,” arrived in Australia in 1984 along with a large influx of foreign “psychics” who seemed to be accepted by the people and the media with very little skepticism. Two businessmen each offered money totaling $120,000 Australian dollars to anyone who could prove psychic ability or who could produce paranormal events in a controlled scientific experiment. Their aim was to rid the country of the charlatans preying on

the public. It was assumed that Steve Terbot was

hoping to collect on the challenge.In 1984 Australia’s top TV show was

called Tonight with Bert Newton. This was a highly rated national TV show that was watched by thousands of viewers each week. The producers of the show wanted to interview the new American psychic who had been traveling the country, performing at colleges and cultural centers apparently hoping to collect on the challenge.

Terbot arrived on the show. In his act, Terbot demonstrated his ability as a mentalist who was an astrologer, a tarot card reader, a palm reader, and a psychic. For the first two of three appearances on the show, he did just that. Magicians were aghast; they called and wrote to Newton as well as to radio stations and newspapers,

claiming that Terbot was a fraud. They offered to appear in the media to duplicate his experiments.

And then came the shock. On his third appearance on the Newton show, Steve Terbot confessed to his hoax. His real name was Bob Steiner. Dick Smith and Mark Plummer of the Australian skeptics association, who were tired of their countrymen being ripped off by fakes, brought Bob from the US to pose as a real psychic and to expose the fraudulent per-formers ripping off the nation.

Steiner did just that!He revealed that he was, in fact, a

magician who used his conjuring tech-niques to create the appearance of psychic ability. He exposed cold reading tech-niques and other ploys of psychics. Bob Steiner revealed that he was a founder and officer of CSICOP, the scientific investiga-tion arm of the Bay Area Skeptics in Cali-fornia. The TV viewers of Australia were in shock. The studio audience was stunned and in silence.

The number of psychics working in the country was reduced. The nation was warned to beware of people claiming psychic powers. One such person, named John Fitzsimons, was sued and lost a $64,000 judgment against him.

Bob Steiner did not give up his campaign against fraudulent charlatans. He was one of the team assisting Randi when he exposed the so-called faith healer Peter Popoff in 1986. As Past National President of The Society of American Magicians, he campaigned for a national anti-drug program and later chaired the Occult Investigation Committee. His book on scams, Don’t Get Taken, is being reprinted; proceeds will be donated to the Houdini Fund. Bob Steiner was born March 6, 1934, and died on January 4, 2013. He did not believe in heaven or hell, and he requested no religious ceremony. He did, however, respect the Society’s Broken Wand ritual.


The Dean's Diary

Steve Terbot


INSIDE STRAIGHTBY NORMAN BECK

WHO YOu GONNA CAll?

I am a lucky guy. I have a better-half who puts up with my nonsense, my quirky friends, and my horrible puns. Joan is a very level-headed, reasonable individual in all areas but one – her grandkids. I am not saying she spoils them, but when they say, “Jump,” on the way up she asks, “How high?”

A few months ago, she frantically called me in Las Vegas. Her two youngest grandkids were stuck at DFW airport with no food and no money. It was 7 p.m.; I was in Vegas, and Joan wanted me to see if I could have dinner taken to them at the gate. Please remember, I was in Las Vegas. But, I got it done, and it took me less than ten minutes to take care of it.

The youngest grandkid, Janessa, will turn fifteen in June. Joan asked me last week if I could get Janessa backstage to meet some young singer whom I was not familiar with – Justin Bieber. It was a Sunday night. I gave my stock answer (“Whatever you want, honey.”). How hard could it be to get that done? He is a young kid, a flash in the pan. I had no idea.

I started my quest the next day, and I immediately found out just how big he is. Clout online has him rated higher than the Dali Lama and Barack Obama. I started to look for a weakness, a backdoor, a basement, some way to get close to a nineteen-year-old I could care less about to make a girl who is the apple of her grandma’s eye happy on her fifteenth birthday. I could find no hole and no weakness. I could not even find the phone number for his manager (I have since found it). I would equate getting close to him now like getting close to the Beatles in the 1960s.

I resorted to my least favorite form of attempting to get something done: asking for help from a friend. I hate to ask favors; I really don’t like asking for a big favor. I suppose that in some sense this was not a big favor, but in my eyes it was huge, since I couldn’t figure out a way to crack this particular egg.

In a book that I don’t completely buy into, Duncan Watts says that the world is small and we are not that far away from anyone. As an example, name any card magician in the world. I either know him or I know someone knows him. I will be able to get him on the phone in short order. (I am certain that there may be exceptions, but as a rule, I can “getter done.”)

My task was to find out the person who might have a way in. For myriad reasons, I will not tell you whom I asked. I sent out emails to three people; all three are very smart and very well connected. From two of them I got what I thought I would get: we don’t have a clue how to do it. The third guy (who is without question the least likely to have ever become my friend due to my being a total jerk when he and I first met) sent me a short email that simply said, “I can’t promise, but I will ask.” This in and of itself was huge! A couple of hours later my friend (in the words of Bill Ingersoll) “gotter done.” The only problem is that Mr. Bieber does not always show up for meet-and-greets; but if he does show up, we have the backstage pass.

I cannot tell you how much gratitude I have for my friend. He didn’t have to do it. I know this, which is why I am buying the Scotch the next time I see him. My friend is very smart; he now has a marker out on me and it is worth more than any cash IOU.

The lesson here is simple. You never know who may be able to help. You don’t get anyplace if you don’t ask. The real secret about things of this nature is access. You must have access, and that is the hardest thing to get.

our advertisers

Axtell Expressions 3Balloons to You 3Bob Solari Magic 31Burgoon Magic 6Card Shark 72Christian Painter 24Joe Mogar - Magic Stars 30Klamm Magic 51La Rock’s Fun & Magic Outlet 2Levent Magic 57L & L Publishing 31MAGIC Magazine 44, 45Nielsen Magic 4S.A.M. 2013 Convention Program 7S.A.M. Convention 2013 71S.A.M. Life Member 67S.A.M. Twitter 31Show-Biz Services 9The Magic Bakery 47T. Myers 31

S.A.M. PHOTO CONTEST

The winner of the January S.A.M. gear photo contest is Kyle Peron. While on the Creativity at Sea magic cruise, Kyle was

spotted in the Cayman Islands wearing his S.A.M. baseball cap. The lizard has yet to be identified, but Kyle assured us that it is an S.A.M. member; he got its footprint on the magician’s oath! Congratulations, Kyle!

– Steve Marshall

Finally, we get to those things that go wrong during a show that are not attribut-able to lack of preparation (or are they?). A thread breaks, a bulb burns out, you drop something, the local cab company comes across on your PA system, or my personal favorite, you lose track of the selected card.

Reality is the only obstacle that stands between us and happiness. Things are going to go wrong. The secret lies in damage control, keeping something that went wrong from going bad. All part-time magicians have a grandiose plan for success. Few of us plan for failure. I only had to lock my keys in the car once to learn my lesson.

I believe it is more professional to laugh at a problem rather than to panic on stage. Have a prepared response that has enter-tainment value for the audience. Weave your reaction to the problem into the fabric of your show.

I carry a tool kit for emergency repairs, and you should, too. Have spare bulbs for your lighting system. Use fresh batteries for every show. If music is critical to your performance, carry a back-up tape or CD. A spare music system is an expensive purchase, but it is also cheap insurance. If your props (like balloons or rubber bands) have a shelf life, buy fresh replacements frequently.

I have a movie slate clapper board that serves as a universal out. The name of the act is permanently printed on the board. “Take 157” is written on the board in chalk. I let the audience see me change the seven to an eight and “clap” the board – a perfect reason for starting the effect over.

I use an ongoing patter bit I call “life’s little mysteries.” At the conclusion of various tricks I say, “This is one of life’s little mysteries, like why do hitchhik-ers always wear camouflage?” There are hundreds of such conundrums available. A problem becomes another of life’s little mysteries and you move forward.

Some lines are suitable for specific situations. I don’t use thread, but if I did I would have a second hookup ready. While re-hooking you could say; “There is abso-lutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation,” or “For those of you lucky enough to have missed it the first time, I will attempt to do it again,” or “If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.”

Perhaps, in rare instances, you can pretend nothing happened and get away with it. If you know something is not right, so does the audience. It’s best to acknowl-edge a problem and keep the audience on your side. If all else fails you can say, “Now you know why the other magicians you interviewed charge more money than I do.”

If you drop a coin, look up as if it fell from the sky. Pick it up and vanish it as you toss it back where it came from. Looking up, say, “Thank you, but I have another one in my pocket.” If you have to bend over to pick up a different item, you could use, “See, I’m not afraid of hard work,” or “One of the side effects of global warming – you never know when there’s going to be a sudden gust of gravity.”

If a prop breaks while you’re working it use, “I got this cheap off the Internet because some assembly was required. The thing had more parts than a Christmas toy. Now I know why I had two screws left over.

It’s all part of the show, folks. This is just the part that wasn’t rehearsed.”

Some folks go to an auto race hoping to see a crash. I suffer through card tricks waiting for a card man to lose track of the selected card. If it happens to you, pause and ask your volunteer a question. “Do you know the history of playing cards?” “Do you know why the backs of playing cards are red or blue? “Did you know a prison inmate once used a deck of cards to commit suicide?” After telling the story, you can say you forgot what you were originally going to do and you have to start over. The prison suicide story is true. I found it in a magic book. It’s on page 16; look it up.

In fact, magic books cover just about every problem you could encounter and offer ways for you to gracefully rebound from the situation. Old timers like me are pretty well covered because either we got our magic education from books or anything that could go wrong has already happened to us during years of perform-ing.

If you depend on YouTube or one-trick DVDs to learn the craft, I am willing to take the bet that someday you are going to bomb on stage. As you stand there talking to yourself, simply explain to the audience that you do that whenever you need expert advice.

Magic magazines are a great source of information and inspiration, especially the meeting reports. Better yet, join a magic club. The older members have hundreds of years of performing experience among them. They have all encountered a dilemma on stage and are willing to share advice.

When all else fails, you can fall back on your usual defense and blame someone else. Comedian Steven Wright has a great line. “Everything that has ever gone wrong in my life I blame on my mother. I was born by Caesarean section. To this day, whenever I leave the house I go out through the window.”

If you need a line for a specific situation I'll do my best to help. Email me ([email protected]).


I believe it is more

professional to laugh at a

problem rather than to panic

on stage. Have a prepared

response that has entertain-

ment value for the audience.

Weave your reaction to the

problem into the fabric

of your show.

By Rod Danilewicz

Confessions of a Paid Amateur

http://www.magicsam.com

http://www.phoenixdeck.com/SupermentalismDeck

PAM THOMPSON

Documents

Transcript of PAM THOMPSON